


Marvel City University

by HulkWidowShipper



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, BAMF Natasha Romanov, Bisexual Bucky Barnes, Bruce Banner & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Bruce Banner & Tony Stark Friendship, Bruce Banner Has Issues, Bucky Barnes & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Bucky Barnes & Sam Wilson Friendship, Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers Friendship, Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Darcy Lewis & Thor Friendship, Deaf Clint Barton, F/M, Gay Steve Rogers, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Minor Darcy Lewis/Loki, Past Bruce Banner/Betty Ross - Freeform, Past Natasha Romanov/Matt Murdock - Freeform, Playboy Tony Stark, Sarcastic Natasha Romanov, Sexual Identity, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson Friendship, Steve Rogers & Tony Stark Friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2020-06-06 05:54:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 59,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19437991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HulkWidowShipper/pseuds/HulkWidowShipper
Summary: We follow the lives of everyone's favourite Avengers as they embark on a new year at Marvel City University (MCU).Natasha is getting over her first heartbreak and meets someone that makes her reconsider her no dating rule.Bruce has a lot of anger issues that he needs to work through.Bucky is happily embracing his identity and owning it.Steve is struggling to understand his own identity.Maria is just enjoying single life.Tony is living up to his billionaire, genius, playboy, philantropist status.Clint and Laura are adjusting to the increasing size of their little family.Thor just wants to play football and not deal with the love triangle he's found himself in.





	1. First Day

**Author's Note:**

> I will try ot update this often but can't promise any regularity- think I've got the second chapter pretty much ready. I am my own worst enemy and started writing this fic whilst procrastinating when I was writing my other fic (which I started wriitng because I was procrastinating whilst writing my university dissertation) and so will no doubt probably procrastinate whilst trying to update this one. But stick with it, I am determined to make sure it's completed.  
> I don't know too much about the American university system so I'm pretty much basing MCU on my own UK university (campus and everything).  
> Bruce and Natasha will be the main relationship that is focussed on in this fic but we will dip into the love lives of everyone esle.  
> Will add more tags if they arise.  
> Happy reading :)

The campus had been everything that she had imagined it to be. She only had the prospectus and a few searches on google images to base her imagination on but every aspect of the grass-covered quad with large oak trees lining the pathways, the redbrick buildings scattered across campus grounds and the buzzing student life was everything she had imagined. MCU had been her first choice of college- really it had been her only choice but Clint and Laura had convinced her to apply to a few more places. But MCU had the best Computer Science course in the country and they offered ballet scholarships, something very few colleges offered, so it was a bit of a no brainer.

Natasha’s eyes traced down the path of the hallway leading to her dorm room. Taking in every detail, every door decoration, every poster she saw being put up. It was a trick she learnt from her time in foster care; you could learn a lot about an individual from the decorations they put up in their rooms. The girls with the half a dozen rainbow and unicorn posters were the ones most likely to dunk your head in the toilets or put chilli oil in your shower gel. Just like it was always the members of staff with the biggest smiles that were the most likely to leave the most painful of bruises or burns in the most inconspicuous of places. 

Natasha shook off the bitter memories of her childhood and made her way over to what was to be her room for the next four years. She stopped outside of room number 316 and braced herself for the introduction that could either make or break her next four years at college. She propped her box of belongings upon her knee and braced it against the door as she twisted the door handle. Gathering the box in her grip she nudged the door open with her hip and took a deep breath as she entered the room.

The sight before her was not one that she was expecting. She had imagined an array of pinks and purples, fairy lights hanging from every possible wall and posters of whatever the latest pop band was that people her age listened to- in all fairness, her understanding of college was pretty much solely based on TV shows and movies. But the sight before her eyes was far from what her imagination had depicted. There were no fairy lights or teddy bears, no fluffy pillows and pink throws. The decorations were scarce, nothing but a few framed photos scattered on the other woman’s bedside table and desk. The bed was neatly made with not a wrinkle in sight and the woman stood in front of the bed was kept just as neatly.

Natasha offered the other woman a small smile before putting her box of belongings down and extending her hand out. “Natasha Romanoff.” She stated curtly with a larger smile than her previous one, willing that it did well to mask the nerves that were building up inside of her.

The other woman, who stood a good 3 inches taller than herself took hold of Natasha’s hand and gave it a firm shake as she introduced herself. “Maria Hill.”

“Looks like we’re roommates,” Natasha said, instantly regretting her obvious statement. Luckily the other woman took it for the attempt at breaking the ice that it was and offered a wide smile in response.

“Looks like it.” She sat back on her bed and Natasha mimicked the behaviour. “So I take it you’re on a sports scholarship.” Natasha’s face must have shown some semblance of confusion as Maria instantly offered a defence. “I’m just assuming because this dorm is full of the sporty types. I’m on a boxing scholarship.”

“Ballet.” Natasha said with a small nod.

“I didn’t know you could get a scholarship for that.”

“Only a few colleges offer it.”

Their polite conversation was interrupted by the sounds coming from the hallway and Natasha rolled her eyes at the familiar voice carrying through the hall.

“We definitely fucked up not going to college!” Clint proclaimed as he entered the room carrying a suitcase full of Natasha’s clothes. “This place is amazing!” He looked at Natasha in wide-eyed fascination then noticed she wasn’t alone in the room. His gaze shifted across to Maria and he offered her his biggest grin and a wave. “Hey, you’re making friends already.”

“This is my brother, Clint,” Natasha explained. “And this is his wife, Laura.” She added as the other woman entered the room holding a potted plant that none of them expects Natasha to actually keep alive.

“Maria Hill.” Maria extended her hand to both Clint and Laura. “And I assume congratulations are in order?”

“Oh that?” Clint pointed over his shoulder with his thumb to where Laura was standing. “Nah she’s just fat.”

The look of shock across Maria’s face was enough to make Natasha bite the inside of her lip to hold back her laughter.

Laura playfully slapped Clint at the back of his head and turned to a rather embarrassed looking Maria. “Thank you. I’m five months along.” There was an awkward silence and Natasha cursed her brain for not thinking of something to say when the silence dragged. She never was good at awkward situations and first impressions. Clint was ten times worse and if someone didn’t say something soon he was going to say something stupid. Luckily Laura was far better at social situations than the two of them and picked up on the awkwardness of the moment and broke the silence. “So, sweetie, we were going to take you for lunch before we head back. You can join us too if you’d like, Maria.”

“No thank you, ma’am, my folks took me to lunch before they left.”

“Ma’am? I’m only 24. Surely I’m not old enough to be called ma’am.”

“Sorry, military upbringing.”

“I’ll see you later then,” Natasha said as she edged Laura and Clint through the door.

Lunch was at a small coffee shop five minutes from campus. It was a simple, quaint looking place that sold artisan coffees and an organic quiche that Natasha noted was worth venturing back for. The drive back to campus was quiet. Natasha spent the entire journey taking in her surroundings and observing the people they drove past. Observing was sort of like her nervous tic and as much as she didn’t want to admit that she was nervous, this would be her first time without Clint nearby in almost fifteen years. Even when she went to ballet camp over the summers Clint would always volunteer in some form just to be around to look out for her. So this was going to be a big step; for both of them.

Natasha rounded the car to stand in front of Laura who was clearly fighting back tears. Before Natasha could say a word she was pulled into a tight squeeze of a hug from the pregnant woman. Natasha resisted these hugs at first, but after seven years of them, she had grown to love them. Her arms wrapped around the other woman reciprocating the hug and she could feel the growing wet patch on her shoulder from the fallen tears.

“We are so proud of you, baby.” Laura whispered in a tone that was barely audible.

Natasha felt Clint wrap his arms around the two of them and place a light kiss on her forehead. “Phil would’ve been proud of you too.” Natasha nodded, blinking away the tears that she refused to let fall as she pulled out of the embrace.

Clint pulled out his pocket knife and held it out to Natasha. She eyed it sceptically and quirked an eyebrow at him. “Really, Clint?”

“Just in case,” Clint said with a shrug.

“I know I shouldn’t be promoting underaged drinking but…” Laura handed her a flask, which by the weight of it was full- hopefully with the good vodka. “You’ll get hold of the stuff somehow. Also, I feel obliged to give you some talk about staying safe.” She said as she tapped the small bump of her stomach.

Natasha let out a snort of laughter. “Don’t worry, I’ll learn from your mistakes.”

“Hey! First off, that is not a mistake!” Clint stated as he pointed to Laura’s stomach. “Second off, that’s what the knife is for. Don’t make me have to come back down to this campus to kick some guys butt!”

“Clint, you do realise Phil taught us _both_ Muay Thai right? I’m more than capable of kicking some guys butt. And as I recall, I kicked your butt several times.”

“I know, just… stay safe kiddo.”

“I love you guys.” With one last hug from the both of them, Natasha stood and watched as the two of them drove away. She watched until the Jeep Wrangler was out of view before she turned on her heel and headed back to her dorm room. Maria was at her desk typing away at her laptop when Natasha entered the room. “Hey, sorry about my brother,” Natasha said as Maria pushed back from her desk and swivelled on her chair to face her. “He’s always been a bit of a goof.”

“Don’t worry about it, my brothers are exactly the same. Although they’re all under the age of 12.”

“Sometimes I think Clint is _still_ under the age of 12.”

“How comes your folks didn’t come with you?” Maria asked as she moved over to her bed to sit opposite Natasha. “They working or something?”

“Uh no, they…” Natasha rolled her tongue around trying to think of the right words to say. She didn’t need pity for her family life. Yeah, it sucked that both her biological parents and her adoptive parents were dead, but life sucked and she learned pretty early on that you just sort of have to get over it. She definitely didn’t need anyone’s pity. “Clint’s all I have left. We were adopted together.” Maria nodded, clearly sensing that Natasha didn’t want to say any more about the topic. The silence was beginning to ensue and Natasha searched her brain for something to say. “So, you said you’re a boxer?”

“Yep. The middleweight champion of Vancouver.” She stated proudly. “And I do a little armature MMA.”

“Nice. I know a little Muay Thai. Nothing too serious but my foster dad was adamant that we needed to know how to defend ourselves.”

“Well, maybe I’ll see you in the ring some time.” Natasha nodded at that. “So ballet huh?”

“Yeah. Been doing it since I was 9 and just haven’t been ready to give it up.”

“Don’t most people start from when they’re younger to be any good?”

Natasha gave a small laugh at that. It was exactly what her first ballet teacher had said to her when she went to her first class. “Most start at 5. But I was determined to be the best no matter what. So I became one of the best.” Natasha noted how arrogant that made herself sound and added. “The best in my classes at least.”

“I don’t doubt it. To get a sports scholarship here you have to be the best of the best.” Maria offered Natasha a large grin as though she was about to let the redhead in on a secret. “There’s a mixer going on at the campus bar later if you want to come. I’ve been told that they’re willing to turn a blind eye to any passable fake ID.”

For the first time today Natasha’s smile actually met her eyes. “Good thing I’ve got a pretty legit-looking fake ID then.”

The bar was a grungy looking place; all sticky floors and dim lighting. The place was crowded with fresh faced looking undergraduates all eager to drink the cheap beer that they have on tap and impress their new cohort. Natasha really did hate these kinds of things. She was never good at socialising and people always said she gave off a cold, emotionless expression. Which to be fair, was probably a result of years of misplaced trust in those around her. Still, she had to give this a chance, she’d promised Clint and Laura that she would at least _try_ and make friends. And Maria seemed nice enough.

Natasha had offered to buy the first round of drinks, if anything just to delay having to socialise with the people hovering around their table. She was making her way back with Maria’s whiskey lemonade and her own vodka soda when she noticed Maria talking with a guy at their table. The first thing Natasha thought when she saw him was _Adonis_. He stood at least 6ft tall, muscular stature, luscious blonde hair and eyes so blue that Natasha felt herself struggling to look anywhere else.

“Hey Natasha.” Maria waved the redhead down, drawing her gaze away from the blonde mans eyes. “This is my roommate Natasha. Natasha this is Steve.” So the Adonis goes by a different name. “Steve is a soccer player.”

“Oh cool.”

“Well, I technically still have to try out for the team.” A blush was creeping up Steve’s neck and Natasha noted that this guy clearly wasn’t used to being so heavily subjected to the female gaze. “I was the centre-forward on my high school team so I’m hoping I’ll smash try-outs on Friday.”

“Yeah, and then you and me can be the stars of the college team.” A muscular arm came wrapping around Steve’s neck as a familiar looking face appeared beside him. “You chatting up the ladies without me roomie?”

“Ha uh, ladies this is…”

“Bucky?” Natasha asked as familiarity struck her. “Bucky Barnes?”

“Shit! Tasha, is that you?” Natasha instantly threw her arms around Bucky, pleased to see a familiar face. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I go here now dipshit, what do you think I’m doing here?”

“Wait. Hang on. _Bucky_?” Steve questioned trying to bite back a laugh.

“It’s a stupid nickname I had in middle school. I haven’t heard it since then but something tells me I’m going to be hearing it more often.”

“So how do you two know each other?” Maria asked, evidently feeling a little awkward and out of the loop.

“Bucky and I were in the same class since kindergarten.” Natasha explained. “Until I had to move away.” Bucky must have been able to see the distant look in her eyes as he gave her small smile airing on the side of sympathetic that would irk her if it was anyone but him.

“How's Clint these days?”

Natasha cleared her throat, pleased to skip over to a happier topic. “He’s good. Great actually. He’s married now with a kid on the way.”

“Someone agreed to marry that guy?” Bucky asked in disbelief. “ _And_ have his kid? This calls for some shots. Wanna help me grab them, Tasha?”

Five rounds and a few embarrassing childhood stories later and Natasha was beginning to feel a little more at ease with this group of people. She never had a large friendship group as a kid and never really felt like she needed one. It was pretty much her and Bucky from kindergarten to middle school. And then they moved away after Phil died and that was when she met Matt. Matt who was her closest friend at a time when she felt like she had no one else and always had her back. Matt who said he always would and then decided to cut all ties with her and follow Elektra Natchios to Stanford- misplaced trust and all that. A small group of friends was definitely something she could handle.

They were just about ready to leave when a large figure stumbled into their table. If Steve was Adonis then this man was definitely a _God_. He was at least three inches taller than Steve and had shoulders almost twice as broad. His long golden hair was tied up into a man bun that on anyone else would probably draw away from the image but for him, it just amplified the look.

“Friends! I could use your aid.” His bellowing voice was far too loud to be standing this close and his breath stank of booze. “I appear to have consumed too much alcohol and cannot currently tell where I am.”

“Dude is that… is that Thor?” Bucky asked Steve with a star-struck look on his face.

“As in the God of Thunder?” Natasha questioned in disbelief as she shoved the large blonde from her shoulder. “You’ve got to be kidding me right?”

“He’s the quarterback for the College Football team. He’s like an absolute legend!” Steve explained.

“Aye! And I would be forever indebted to you if you were to aid my return to my quarters.”

“Come on Bucky. You take his right arm, I’ll take the left.”

Bucky rolled his eyes at the nickname but followed Steve’s lead nevertheless and hoisted Thor up with one right arm slumped over his shoulder.

Natasha and Maria took that as their queue to leave and made their way back to their dorm room. “So you and Steve looked like you were hitting it off back there.” Natasha said as they walked through the campus grounds.

“Nah, I’m pretty sure he’s gay.”

“Really?”

“He kept staring at Bucky the entire night.” Natasha had noticed that but thought nothing of it, now it seemed to make more sense. “Speaking of which, are you gonna go for that?”

Natasha snorted in disbelief. “ _Me_ and _Bucky_? God no.” Maria quirked an eyebrow towards the redhead. “I mean don’t get me wrong, puberty has done him a ton of favours but I’ve known that guy from when he used to pick his nose. That would be far too weird.” Natasha didn’t dare add that after Matt, she had a strict ‘no dating’ rule.

“So you’d be cool if I did?”

“By all means, knock yourself out.”

  
~*~

  
Bruce opened the door to his new apartment room, holding his last box of belongings from his aunt's house in Dayton. Tony had insisted that they needed a new apartment to mark the next stage in their academic careers and had insisted that he would pay for it despite Bruce stating that it wasn’t necessary. Finally fed up with his nagging, Bruce had conceded with the one exception that Tony didn’t spend too much. In retrospect, Bruce should’ve known that Tony didn’t quite know the meaning of not spending too much. The room was twice as big as the one they shared during their master’s degree and he had this all to himself. The bed was still single, which didn’t bother him much seen as it would just be him in it; a bitter thought that he tried not to dwell on too much these days.

There was a desk with a brand new custom-made Stark Industries computer- a feature that made it’s way into Bruce’s room at the start of every academic year. Bruce had tried to send the first one back as an unnecessary expense but Tony had insisted that he needed new tech for each year and that these were prototypes in need of testing before they went on the market. The technology in the room wasn’t limited to a new computer, there was also a TV on the wall opposite his bed that would no doubt be going to waste, a new Stark-pad was on the desk next to the computer and a brand-new Stark phone next to it. All of which Bruce will try in vain to return.

The only point Tony seemed to have listened to him on is that they have separate rooms, which Bruce was incredibly grateful for. The last thing he needed is to hear Tony doing, well, _being Tony_ , with one of his many ‘special friends’. The past six years of being Tony’s roommate had been spent spending hours hanging around in the lab or library to avoid walking in on Tony in an unfavourable position- which had happened on one too many traumatising occasions. At least now he can rest easy knowing that there are two doors and a bathroom between him and Tony’s antics.

The room was also exceptionally tidy. Bed readymade, clothes hung up in the wardrobe- new clothes too, even his socks were knotted together in the draws. So Jarvis had stopped by at some point and done his unpacking for him. Bruce can’t say that he’s not grateful for it. He’d had so much to handle in Dayton with getting the house in order for the buyers that he was dreading having to come back here and sort all of his stuff.

Bruce put his box down on his desk chair and collapsed back on his bed, one arm over his eyes. The last few months had been beyond stressful. His breakup with Betty had been hard enough but then his Aunt Susan passed away and it all started to really go to shit. Tony had offered to fund the funeral and put him in contact with the company that arranged his parents funeral four years ago and though he’d usually refuse he didn’t have a clue what he was doing or a penny to his name so he was grateful for the help.

To be honest, for all his quirks Tony really was the greatest friend he could ask for. When Bruce had mentioned he couldn’t stand the thought of living in his Aunt’s house without her there, Tony had insisted he move in with him and would not take no for an answer. Three days later there was a moving van outside the house ready to take the stuff to Tony’s New York apartment with Jarvis waiting to meet it on the other end. Bruce had sent Tony a cheque when the house sold but instead of cashing it for himself Tony had invested it in SI stocks in Bruce’s name. Which was doing quite well if the weekly reports that Bruce was getting was anything to go by. He wasn’t sure whether that counted as inside trading or not, but Bruce wasn’t going to question it. 

Tony burst into his room, reminding Bruce that separate rooms didn’t necessarily mean privacy. “Hey Buddy! Welcome back.” Tony slid into the desk chair and swivelled around a few times before he stopped to face Bruce who had sat up. “What do you think of the new place?”

“It’s nice. But I’m pretty sure I said to keep things modest.”

“This is modest!” Tony said as he flailed his hands about. “I wanted a whole lot more but I had you in mind Brucey.”

“Clearly.” Tony gave Bruce a hurt look. “It’s great Tony. I’m sure the TV will be put to good use.”

“I knew it would. Now, get your best corduroys on. We’re going to a to a mixer tonight.”

“Aren’t those things for undergrads? Not happening, Tony.”

Tony waved his hands in disbelief. “Come on. You could use a drink.” Tony walked out of the room and Bruce knew that wouldn’t be the end of it. It’s never that easy with Tony. When he re-entered the room he was holding a box which he dumped on Bruce’s bed. There was a letter on top and Bruce instantly recognised the handwriting. “Betty sent that 3 weeks ago. The letter came last week.”

Tony didn’t hang around to see Bruce open the box so that probably wasn’t a good sign. He opened the letter and stared at the words for a long time not really taking things in. After a few scans of the letter he finally started to take the words in.

D _ear Bruce,_

_You wouldn’t take any of my calls or respond to my texts or emails, which I don’t blame you for, so I’m left with the old-fashioned means of communication._  
_I’m really sorry to hear about your Aunt Susan and want you to know that even though we may be over I’m still here for you if you need anything. The box of stuff was poorly timed and had I have known about your Aunt I wouldn’t have sent it yet._  
_I don’t regret ending things, you have a lot of stuff that you need to work through and I don’t think us being together was helping with that. But I want you_ know _that if you need anything I am here for you. The end of our relationship isn’t the end of our friendship; unless you want it to be._

_Don’t be a stranger._

_Love Betty._

Of course those would be her last words. Of course she would leave it to him to try and salvage something from their relationship. He did want to be friends with Betty, but he didn’t think he could handle _just_ being friends. How does anyone end a five-year relationship and come out of it as friends?

Well for one thing, Tony was right, he could definitely use a drink. Bruce changed into one of the new pairs of jeans and a purple button-down shirt that Tony had brought him- which he noted fitted a lot more snugly than any of his other clothes. He walked across the bathroom to Tony’s room, ashamedly checking himself out in the mirror as he went through. He had to admit, they did look better than his old clothes.

“I am not doing any shots.”

Tony threw his fists in the air in celebration and grabbed his jacket from his desk chair. If Bruce was being honest with himself, he did love the campus bar. The carpets were sticky, the beer was watered down and the whole placed smelt like mould, but it had been their old haunt from their first year of college and he was always a sucker for nostalgia. Bruce tried to ignore the fact the bar was packed with first-year undergrads. At least he and Tony were the same age as the few first-year masters students that were dotted around the place so they weren’t _that_ old.

Tony kept Bruce entertained with his tales over the summer, sharing stories from his travels across South East Asia. Bruce’s eyes drifted around the room, taking in the fresh, eager faces. One face in particular stuck out. That belonging to a petite redhead a few tables over. There was something about the look on her face that drew his attention. The smile that didn’t quite meet her hazel eyes and the distant look that those eyes held reminded him of himself. He couldn’t quite bring himself to draw his eyes away, even when he saw her go to the bar with a tall, muscular guy he saw her embrace a few minutes ago.

He finally drew his eyes away when he felt a hand land on his shoulder. “You okay buddy?” Bruce hadn’t realised how long his attention had gone but in that space they had been joined by a blonde woman and a brunette.

“Uh hi.”

“Bruce, this is Rebecca.” Tony said pointing to the blonde. “And this is Sarah.”

“Stacey.” The brunette corrected.

“Yeah right. They’re masters students.” Tony said as he waggled his eyebrows.

Bruce had to do his best to supress his eyeroll, he was definitely not up for this kind of socialising. After a few more rounds and a polite decline to see Stacey’s new dorm room, Bruce made his way back to his apartment. He’d forgotten all about the box of belongings he had abandoned on his bed. He pulled the tape off the cardboard and stared into the box that contained the remains of his five-year relationship with Betty Ross. A few photos, a sweatshirt of his and some other mementoes from their years together was all that remained. And the expensive bottle of bourbon that Bruce had brought to celebrate Betty graduating from her undergraduate’s degree.

He examined the bottle for a long while, mind rolling over the words in Betty’s letter. The more he thought about her words the angrier he got. And the irony of that was just too sweet given his anger was the reason they broke up in the first place. Sitting in this room alone with his thoughts wasn’t going to help so Bruce picked up the bottle and let his feet guide him through the campus grounds.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he barely noticed the woman walking a few feet in front of him until the voice drew his attention back to earth.

“If you’re stalking me be warned, I do know self-defence.” He didn’t realise who it was until the redhead from the bar turned on her heel to face him. “You’re the creep from the bar. I have a knife you know.”

Bruce was so confused he barely even noticed the knife the redhead was holding and the defensive stance she had taken. “I’m sorry, creep?”

“I saw you staring. If you’re planning an attack or something then you’ve picked the wrong person.”

“What? No. I wasn’t staring.” Bruce was so confused by the situation. What had he walked into?

“Oh really? Then what would you call looking at someone for a prolonged period of time?”

Well she had him there. “Okay, maybe I was staring. But not like that.” That seemed to do nothing to ease the redhead’s defensive position. “Look, how about you don’t stab me and I’ll share this bottle of bourbon with you?” Bruce said holding the bottle in the light for her to see.

The redhead pointed her knife towards him. “How do I know it’s not roofied?”

Bruce rolled his eyes and couldn’t help the smile that crept its way on his face. “I’ll take the first few swigs.” That seemed to quell her concerns as she shrugged one shoulder and put her knife back in her pocket. Bruce walked the few steps between them so they were walking side-by-side and led the way to his favourite spot on campus. “Do you normally walk around campus threatening to stab innocent guys?”

“Do you usually walk around campus offering random women bottles of alcohol?” She shot back.

“Only on days ending with a y.” Bruce deadpanned and the redhead snorted with laughter. “Seriously though, why do you have a knife?” He asked once they got to the fountain in the middle of campus. It was Bruce’s favourite place to stop by on his nightly walks; always calm and quiet when it’s usually the centre of the busy student life during the day. Usually the perfect place to come and think. And now it seems the perfect place to drink expensive alcohol and pray this petite woman doesn’t decide to stab him anyway.

“Why have you got a bottle of Bourbon?”

Okay, so getting information out of her wasn’t going to be easy. Bruce sat with his back to the fountain and opened the bottle, peeling away the plastic wrap and placing the cork on the side of the fountain next to him. He took a swig and grimaced as the alcohol burned his throat. He was going for cool but all hopes of that were dashed away with the face he made at the second swig. He noticed the redhead fighting back laughter behind her hand.

“The roofie makes it taste funny.” He said as he handed the bottle over to her as she sat next him on the fountain’s edge.

She took a swig before handing the bottle back to him. “That stuff is disgusting.”

“Tell me about it,” Bruce said with another swig. “I don’t even drink the stuff. I brought it for my ex to celebrate her graduation and she sent it back with a box of my stuff.” There was a bitter note to his voice but he didn’t bother to reign it in. He was allowed to be angry. Surely anyone in his position was allowed to be angry and thinking about Betty’s letter only added to that anger. “She said it was up to me if I wanted us to still be friends. Think she just said it to clear her conscience.” He said with a bitter laugh and a shake of his head. He took another swig of the bottle and handed it to the redhead beside him.

She eyed the bottle for a while. “At least you got that.” She took a long gulp from the bottle. “I didn’t even get that much. One minute we’re planning to stay together throughout college, next minute it’s radio silence. I found out two weeks ago that he’s at Stanford shacking up with the head of the cheerleading squad.”

“Isn’t that what you kids call ‘ghosting’?”

“Oh please, you are not old enough to use the phrase ‘ _you kids_ ’”

Bruce took the bottle from the redhead and took a long swig. “22.” And man did he feel old saying that figure aloud.

“Master’s student?”

“PhD first year.” The redhead gave him a questioning look. “I was kind of a child genius. Got a full scholarship when I was 16.” He said with a shrug. “I think that would be better. Complete silence. A clean break.”

“Maybe. Maybe I got lucky I guess.” She shrugged a shoulder before stealing the bottle back. “Sure doesn’t feel that way.”

“Well the guy’s an idiot. You know self-defence _and_ have a knife. That guy must have a serious death wish or something.” She laughed and gave him one of those smiles that he saw back at the bar. The smile that reminded him of himself so much. “See, that’s why I was staring at the bar.”

“What?”

“That practised smile that doesn’t quite reach your eyes. I’m sort of an expert in those smiles so I recognise them pretty easily on other people.”

“I didn’t know MCU offers PhDs in fake smiles studies. They really do offer everything here.” She deadpanned, placing the bottle in the gap between them on the fountain’s edge. “Maybe that’s a conversation for another day’s late-night drinking session.”

“Okay but you’re charged with bringing the alcohol. Unless you want another night of drinking crappy liquor.” Bruce indicated towards the half-empty bottle of bourbon and the redhead nodded with a smile. “Wait, should I be promoting underage drinking? Does that make me an accomplice to the crime?”

“You assume I’m under the age of 21?” She raised a questioning eyebrow at him and Bruce felt himself sweating slightly under the scrutiny of her gaze. Finally she relented and said. “It’s cool, I’ve got a pretty legit looking fake ID.”

“Oh god. I really am an accomplice aren’t I?” The redhead gave him one last smile before she stood up and began to make her way back the way they came. “I would offer to walk you home but I reckon I’d probably benefit from you walking _me_ home.”

“That’s why you should get yourself a pocket knife.”

It wasn’t until the redhead was at least 20 metres away that he realised he forgot to ask her name.

“I’m Bruce by the way.” He called out to her back.

“Natasha.” She called back over her shoulder.

Bruce poured the rest of the bourbon down the drain and dumped the bottle in the recycle bin. Maybe this year wasn’t going to be too bad.

  
~*~

To say Steve was feeling nervous about starting college would be a massive understatement. He was beyond nervous. To the point where he was sweating so much, he had to change his shirt twice this morning and he was already starting to sweat through this one. His mum had tried to calm his nerves and tell him that it would all be okay, but somehow her reasoning that Steve ‘was a great guy and everyone would love him’ just didn’t quite settle his nerves, parents are supposed to say that stuff whether its true or not.

Steve took a deep breath and braced himself as he opened the door to his dorm room, thinking of all the conversation starters he had come up with earlier on. As he opened the door however, all his thoughts left his mind and he was at a genuine loss for words as he stared upon the tall, dark and handsome that was stood in his room.

“Woah buddy think you’ve got the wrong room. This dorm is for athletes not models.” Steve’s pretty sure he’d never been caught dumbstruck before, not until this moment at least. Stood in the doorway of his new dorm room, mouth agape at the compliment- did his new roommate just call him a model?- all Steve could do was blink and stare. “Too forward for an introduction? Okay, we’ll go with the formal: James Barnes, what’s your name?”

Steve blinked for a few seconds, staring at the hand extended towards him. Finally, Steve took hold of it and gave it a firm shake. “Steve Rogers. Sorry, first day nerves.” He said self-consciously.

“Don’t worry about it. I probably would’ve been the same, I’ve just got the upper hand of having been here for a few hours already.”

“Oh, Stevie this place is so lovely!” Steve’s mum came bursting through the door and Steve had to stifle a groan at the use of his nickname. They had discussed this on the drive over but it seems his mother had opted to ignore his pleadings that she doesn’t use his nickname. “Oh hello, you must be Stevie’s new roommate.”

“James Barnes,” James said with a nod and a hand extended out to her. “And you must be Mrs Rogers.”

“Ms Rogers, but you can call me Sarah.”

“Well, I can see where Stevie here gets his good looks from.” James winked at him as he said that. Or at least Steve thought it was a wink, it could’ve just been a twitch. And at least he thought it was at him, it could’ve just as easily been towards a camera behind him because he was pretty sure he was being pranked right now. “That or he was injected with some kind of superhuman serum.” Okay so James was definitely a charmer, but Steve couldn’t quite tell if he was genuinely flirting or if this was just part of his personality.

“Oh please.” His mum said modestly. “He’s clearly not the only one.”

“Ma!” Steve whined and he saw James grin from ear to ear. And- and did he just flex his muscles. Surely Steve was just imagining all this. “Ma shouldn’t you get going, you know before traffic hits or something.”

“Stevie don’t be rude. James and I are talking.”

“Ma!” Steve’s eyes were wide, trying to indicate to his mother that she was well and truly embarrassing him now.

“Oh alright, I’ll get going.” His mum started to head towards the door and Steve followed behind her. “It was lovely meeting you, James.”

“You too Sarah,” Bucky said with a wave.

“He’s very handsome.” Steve’s mum said in a tone that was intended as a whisper but was just as loud as her regular voice and judging by the laugh coming from behind him, James heard the comment. Steve widened his eyes again, trying to display the message to his mother. Steve’s mum had always done that with every woman they met that was around Steve’s age and when Steve came out to her a few months ago, well the only change in his mother’s behaviour was to point out every good-looking guy instead. As much as he appreciated his mum’s acceptance of his sexuality, he wasn’t quite ready to be so open about it, especially when he was trying to figure where he stood for himself. “Okay, okay. I’m going.”

“Drive safe, let me know when you get in.” He gave his mum a tight squeeze and felt her place a kiss on his cheek. “Love you ma.”

“Love you too Stevie.” She brought a hand up to his cheek and patted it softly. “And I’m so proud of you.”

He watched as his mum walked down the hallway and gave her one last wave as she turned to start down the stairs. Turning back to the room he noticed James was still wearing that charming grin that he had on since Steve walked into the room.

“Sorry about my Ma. She doesn’t realise she’s being embarrassing half the time.”

“You thought that was embarrassing? You have no idea. I have three older sisters and an Italian mother.” James joked. “The whole reason I got here early was so they’d be gone by the time you got here.”

“Well, I’ll have to make sure I am here the next time they stop by to get some payback.”

“Stevie, you’re a fool if you think you can handle my sisters?” Steve laughed as he began to empty the contents of his box of belongings. He unloaded his football signed by Eric Cantona and the shirt he had signed by Ole Gunnar Solskjær - they were two of his most prized possessions and there was no way he was leaving them behind. “I’m gonna hope you’re just an admirer of the players and not an actual United fan,” Bucky said with a disapproving look.

“Some of the greatest players of all time and the greatest team of all time. How could I not be a fan?” Steve’s eyes scanned James decorations and noticed the red and white scarf with the cannon emblem that only meant one thing. “Better than supporting a team that hasn’t won the league in 14 years.”

“Well, when you have a squad that was invincible then you kind of have to let other teams give it a shot.” Bucky fired back.

“Tell you want, get back to me when you guys win the Champion’s League.”

“Ooo low blow Rogers. You play as well, or just a fan?”

“Centre-forward,” Steve said proudly.

“Looks like we’re made for each other then Stevie.” Steve had that dumbstruck look on his face again and he cursed the gods that be that James was able to do this to him. “I was left-wing in my old squad. So if your game is better than you taste in team we could be a good pair.”

“We have to make it through try-outs first.”

“I have no doubt we will Stevie.” Steve would usually frown at someone other than his mother using his nickname but somehow it just sounded right coming from James. “You draw?” He asked indicating to the sketch pad that Steve had placed neatly on his desk along with his charcoals and pencils.

“Nothing too serious.”

“Mind if I take a look?” Steve nodded and indicated towards the book. He wouldn’t usually share his drawings with strangers but he figured James would just look when Steve wasn’t around, especially given it would just be sitting there. Steve felt his ears go red with every whistle of approval that James made. “These are amazing! You taking some art courses here?”

“A few,” Steve answered around his embarrassment. He never was good with receiving compliments. Eager to change the topic Steve blurted out. “I’ll buy you a drink.” At James’ questioning look he corrected. “There’s a mixer going on that I was gonna check out. If you want to come with, I’ll buy the first round.” He could feel the flush in his skin from head to toe and willed it to go away.

“Now that’s a deal!” James said with an eager grin.

The bar was an interesting place, to say the least. Steve had never been to a bar like this before; truthfully he’d never actually been to any kind of bar before. He wondered if all bars were as grungy as this one. At least there was a good vibe to this place; great music, nice people and cheap alcohol, what more could you want?

Bucky had gone to the toilet when Steve went to find them a table. He felt someone stumble into the back of him and nudge him forward landing half on top of an unsuspecting brunette. “Oh god, I am so sorry!” He could feel the red at the top of his ears in embarrassment.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not every day a good-looking guy falls into my lap.” That certainly didn’t help the blush that was now creeping up his neck. “My name’s Maria.”

"Steve. And uh, sorry again.”

“Honestly, it’s fine. I’m a boxer so I used to getting a little bruised.”

There was a coy smile on her face and again Steve found himself unsure of whether someone was flirting with him again.

“Soccer.” He blurted out. “I play soccer.”

“Very cool.”

Maria waved down a redhead who she introduced as Natasha and he _immediately_ felt as though he was under the spotlight with the two women. He wasn’t used to this feeling. For most of high school, he was a scrawny little kid who barely got a second glance from anyone. And then he got his growth spurt and started working out and had all manner of people trying to flirt with him and catch his attention. Just like these two women and he really didn’t know how to cope. Where was James when you needed him?

Luckily someone heard his prayers as he felt James’ arm slink over his shoulder. He had a brief moment of relief until he realised that James- or should he say _Bucky_ – and Natasha were old friends and from what it seems were well on their way to rekindling that friendship. Steve felt a pang of jealousy surge through him when the two of them went off to the bar.

“So they’re pretty cosy aren’t they?” Steve said the words before he could even think to stop himself. He sounded like a jealous ex and he had no grounds to. He’d literally known Bucky for all of four hours and now he’s jealous of someone who he’d known for almost all his life. And judging by how close the two of them are, Bucky wasn’t even gay.

“Looks like one of us is going to be kept up all night.”

“Lucky us.”

As jealous as Steve was feeling, the drinks were quite pleasant. Natasha and Maria seemed pretty cool and he got to hear a load of stories about Bucky from his preschool days. It was all going well until Thor- one of his favourite college football players of all time literally crashed their gathering. Steve and Bucky were left to carry the large blonde to his dorm which turned out to be on the other side of campus. It was a good thing the two of them were in pretty good shape.

They deposited Thor on his bed with a bottle of water and made sure he was laying on his side before they left to begin their walk back across campus.

“Man that guy is literally the definition of beauty,” Bucky exclaimed. “I have literally had a crush on that guy from the moment he came on the college football scene.”

“Uh yeah.” Was that Bucky’s way of coming out to him? Or maybe he knows Steve’s gay and is showing that he’s okay with it. Steve was so confused he didn’t quite know what to say at this moment. “Speaking of beauty. Natasha’s pretty, well pretty.” Steve said nervously. “Are you and her gonna…”

“Me and Tasha? _God no!_ That would be so weird.” Well, that at least made Steve feel a little better. “But Maria. Now that would not be weird. I was gonna say actually, you two looked like you were hitting it off back there. So if you were interested in her I’ll back off.”

“Uh. No. No, she’s not my type.”

“What is your type then?”

Steve felt his whole face go red. What was he supposed to say? He was pretty sure he didn’t have a set type but if he had to sum it up it would be Bucky. But he couldn’t exactly say that.

“Uh, I don’t really have a type.” He said nervously.

“So how do you know Maria isn’t your type?” Steve simply shrugged at that. “What about Natasha, she’s everyone’s type.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

Maybe he could just go on a few dates with Natasha. Just until he’s ready to come out. Or until the ground swallows him up.

This was going to be a long year.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to make Steve and Bucky baseball players but honestly I know nothing about the sport and though both Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan are 6ft they're not really tall enough to be basketball players. Hence why they're soccer (football for all the brits in the room) players, and I know a fair bit about football. Also in case you don't know much about football/soccer Steve supports Manchester United and Bucky supports Arsenal.


	2. First Week

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new chapter up and ready for you guys.  
> Bucky has a much needed catch-up with Natasha after all these years.  
> Thor hosts a party where Steve makes a new friend.  
> The boys have their football tryouts.  
> Natasha has a very important ballet audition to attend.

Bucky had always looked back at his youth with fondness. He remembers when he first met Natasha back in kindergarten. This small redhead with long curls that one kid thought he could pull. Natasha had him face down in the sandbox in no time and Bucky was captivated from that moment onwards. They had been virtually inseparable until Natasha had to move away after Phil’s murder. They had tried to keep in contact but it was never the same. So Bucky was truly over the moon when he bumped into her at the mixer last night and had texted her as soon as he woke up this morning, inviting her out for coffee and a much-needed catch-up.

Bucky had ordered them both a black coffee and waited for Natasha to arrive. Even when he saw her walk into the shop he still couldn’t believe that he was seeing her again after all these years. He swamped her in a tight hug as she approached the table.

“God Tasha, I can’t believe you’re really here.” He said once he finally let her go.

“I know, it’s weird.” Natasha took her seat at the table and emptied three sugar packets into her coffee before giving it a stir and taking a long sip of the warm bitter liquid. “Thanks, by the way, I really needed this.”

“You and Maria stay late last night?” He asked as he took a sip of his own coffee.

“Nah, we left not long after you and Steve. I couldn’t sleep so I took a walk around campus. Wound up staying up late drinking with some guy.”

“Oh?” Bucky waggled his eyebrows and asked suggestively, “just drinking?”

Natasha rolled her eyes. “Yes, just drinking.”

“Sure.” He said in disbelief. “Anyway, how have you been lately? It’s been years since we had a proper catch-up. You said Clint was married?”

“Yeah, do you remember Laura?”

“The short brunette?”

Natasha nodded as she took another sip of her coffee. “Yeah, well they got married two years ago and I guess now they’re having a kid.”

“That’s great!” Bucky said with absolute sincerity. He always liked Clint, not only was he a funny guy but Bucky knew just how much Clint had stuck up for Natasha when they were in foster care and Natasha saw him as a big brother. And as far as big brothers go, Clint was one of the best you could ask for. So to know the guy was finally getting a happy ending that he truly deserved was genuinely great news. “And what about you? What have you been up to? You still dance?”

“Yeah, I’ve got the auditions for the Christmas production of the Nutcracker coming up on Friday.” Natasha stared intensely at her coffee as she stirred it. Bucky could tell that there was something bugging her but the best way to get anything out of Natasha was to just wait her out. If you try to push her she’ll just retreat and you’ll never know. “I’m just… trying to make Phil proud; you know.”

Bucky reached over and took hold of her hand. “You already have.” He didn’t know Phil well whilst he was alive, but from the few times Bucky had met the man he could see the pride the man held for his daughter. “If he was here today he’d tell you exactly that.”

Natasha gave him a small smile before shaking it off and shutting down her emotions, something the redhead had been doing since as long as he could remember. “What about you, huh? Somebody looks like they got hit by the puberty bus.”

“Well you know,” Bucky made a show of fixing his hair and flexing his muscles. “I do work out quite a bit.”

“Yeah, I bet you get all the attention because of it.” Natasha joked.

“What can I say, people love me. Speaking of which, your roomie Maria, what’s her deal?” Natasha raised a questioning eyebrow at him. “Is she single? Do you think I’m her type? Is she even into guys?”

“From what I know she’s definitely straight, she’s definitely single and she’s definitely into you.”

“Really?” Bucky leaned back in his chair trying to play it off. “Well then, maybe I’ll ask her out. And whilst we’re on the topic of dating…” Natasha rolled her eyes but Bucky continued on. “Steve is thinking of asking you out.”

Natasha nearly choked on her drink. “He is?”

“Uh huh. Asked if there was anything between you and me.”

Natasha pulled a face in disgust. “Why does everyone think that?”

“I know right!” Bucky said in joint disbelief. “But if he asked, would you go out with him?” Natasha made another face. “Are you kidding? What’s wrong with Steve? He’s literally perfect.”

“Oh, I know. That man is literally Adonis reincarnate.” Natasha said in all seriousness. “I’m just pretty sure I’m not his type.”

“Nat, you’re everyone’s type.”

“Not if you’re gay.”

“Yeah but Steve’s not…” Bucky stopped himself. He was pretty sure Steve wasn’t gay. He’d thought so at first, but after testing the waters with a few lines to get the blonde to open up he just assumed he was wrong. He started to think over the interactions he had with Steve and it all started to make sense. He’d shown no interest in any of the women at the bar last night, got pretty nervous whenever Natasha or Maria complimented him and was blushing head to toe when they helped Thor back to his room; particularly then he whipped off his top and jeans and crawled into bed. Wow, he had completely failed to connect those dots. “Well shit, now that you’ve pointed it out, it is pretty obvious.”

Natasha leaned back in her seat and gave him a smug look over her coffee mug. “Maria and I also happen to think he’s got quite the crush on you.”

“What?”

“He seemed pretty interested in you and you alone last night.”

“That’s just first day nerves.” Bucky offered as some kind of explanation. Steve had been pretty nervous and Bucky was a somewhat familiar face, it was only natural and Steve would cling to him like he did last night. “He seems like a pretty shy guy.”

“Or, he’s got a massive crush on his roommate that he won't act on because he’s buried himself deep in the closest and is too scared to come out,” Natasha said as she finished the last few dredges of her coffee, swirling the mug and using her finger to scoop up the sugary deposits at the bottom. “Maybe you could help him feel more… comfortable with his identity.”

“That’s not my job Nat.” Bucky sighed. “Maybe he is gay and maybe he does have a slight crush on me but he’s obviously not ready to come out for whatever reason and it’s not my place to force someone to come out.” He’s done it in the past and it did not work out well for him. “Look, all I know is he’s probably gonna ask you out the next time he sees you so can you just let him down easily.” Natasha nodded. “And maybe don’t mention anything about me knowing he’s gay. He’ll tell me when he’s ready." Bucky checked the time on his phone, it was 10:20 and they had 15 minutes to get to the introduction talk on the other side of campus. "Come one, we're gonna be late for this talk."

Bucky was getting very bored. Dean Fury’s introduction talk had been going on for over an hour now and he had definitely had enough of hearing about the disciplinary measures for misconduct on campus.

“Can this guy get any more intimidating?” Steve leaned over to whisper in his ear.

“I know right! He’s already the guy that can get you kicked out of college; does he really need the eye patch?”

“Don’t forget the bald head that makes him look like a Bond villain?” Steve joked and Bucky’s shoulders shook with laughter. “Like seriously, what’s up with the all-black suit and the long leather jacket?” Bucky let out a bark of laughter and had to cover his mouth to hold back further laughter as all eyes turned to the direction of the noise.

“Do you two want to shut the fuck up?” Natasha leaned over to whisper from her seat behind them. “It’s bad enough that I have to listen to this bullshit without you two sniggering throughout the whole damn thing.”

“You’re just jealous because Maria won't snigger with you,” Bucky replied smugly.

“Some of us would actually quite like to know how not to get kicked out of college,” Maria responded with a mock scowl.

Bucky gave her a smug look as an idea popped into his head. “I tell you what, I’ll stop talking…” He turned back around to face the stage. “If you agree to go out on a date with me.”

“Really Bucky, you’re using bribery as a pickup line?” Natasha teased. “No wonder you’re single.”

Maria didn’t reply for a while and Bucky had to stop himself from turning around to face her in his attempt to play it cool. Bucky leaned over to Steve again. “Do you think he has a wooden leg to match the eyepatch?” Steve started to snigger behind his hand.

“Maria please just say yes; we’ve got another hour left of this.” Natasha pleaded.

Maria still didn’t reply so Bucky continued. “Maybe the hand is a prosthetic and he has a hook in his office.”

Steve snorted and Maria finally seemed to have enough as she conceded. “Fine.”

“I’ll pick you up for dinner at 8,” Bucky said as he turned to give Natasha a smug smirk.

Natasha slapped the back of his head. “You’re gonna shut the fuck up now right?”

Bucky turned back to face forward, maintaining the smug look on his face and let his mind wander for the rest of the talk.

He’s not sure how much time had gone by before he mentally checked back in. Steve had his sketchpad out drawing a rather detailed depiction of Dean Fury on a pirate ship. Natasha was lightly snoring behind him, evidently still tired from her late-night drinking session with the random guy- he really needed to get more of a scoop on what happened there. Maria, as expected, was focusing intently on whatever Dean Fury was talking about now; something about proper conduct in lectures.

“You’re missing the parrot on his shoulder,” Bucky whispered as he eyed Steve’s drawing. Steve’s shoulders shook in silent laughter as he began to add in a parrot to the doodle. Bucky started to think back to his conversation with Natasha this morning. It wasn’t his place to force anyone to open up about their sexuality, but maybe he could let Steve know that it’s okay to be himself. “You know, college is sort of the time to reinvent yourself.” Steve looked up from his drawing, confusion written all over his face. “Sometimes people can’t really be who they want to be in high school. But college is a chance for a fresh start. To be who you wanna be.”

“Did you get that from a fortune cookie?”

“Maybe.” Bucky laughed. “But still, my point stands. This is your chance to be whoever you want.”

“Hey! The deal was Maria agrees to go out with you and you shut the fuck up.” Natasha said as she slapped him on the back of his head again.

“Jesus! You’re worse than my mother!”

“Damn right I am. Now shut up or next time it’ll be my fist.”

Bucky turned back around to face forward again, he knew Natasha would always make good on her threats and having been punched by the redhead before he really didn’t want to go through that again. Besides, he didn’t want to have a black eye on his date tonight.

  
"How do I look?" Bucky asked as he exited the bathroom, running a hand through his hear one last time and praying that the product in it would hold for the duration of this date. "Too much?"  
  
"No, you uh... you look good," Steve said as his eyes wandered up and down Bucky's image, taking in the white shirt, black skinny jeans and denim jacket. "You look great."  
  
Bucky tried to ignore the wondering looks he was getting from Steve as he dabbed some aftershave on his neck and wrists. He knows it must be hard for him, discovering yourself was hard enough but having to do it whilst juggling a crush on your roommate must be even harder. And as much as Bucky wanted to be there for him, he wasn't exactly going to sit around and pass up the opportunity to go out with a gorgeous woman while Steve worked out his feelings.  
  
"Hair down or tied back?" He asked as he did one last mirror check. "I'm thinking tied back."  
  
"You don't think you're trying too hard?" Bucky gave him a look as he pulled his hair into a ponytail and then let it fall back down to demonstrate the options available. With a sigh, Steve finally decided "down".  
  
"Cheers, bud." Bucky grabbed his phone and wallet before doing a final mirror check and heading for the door. "Don't wait up." He made his way across the campus grounds to Maria's dorm and arrived at the building just in time to see Maria enter the lobby. "Perfect timing." He held the door open for her and took in her outfit, the summer dress that just grazed her thighs coupled with a leather jacket and ankle boots to combat the September chill. Her wavy brunette hair was bouncing at her shoulders and he could see the shine on her lips from freshly applied lip gloss- in short, she looked amazing. "You look great."  
  
"Thanks, you don't look so bad yourself." she said bashfully. "So, where are we off to?"  
  
"I know of this little Italian place down the street."  
  
"Bit risky taking an Italian to an Italian restaurant."  
  
"Don't worry, this place is legit." He said smugly. "Their marinara sauce makes my own Ma's taste like shop bought crap."  
  
"Oh really?"  
  
"Yeah, but don't ever tell her I said that, and the tiramisu is to die for." Bucky held out his elbow for Maria to take as he led the way towards the restaurant. "What part of Italy is your family from?"  
  
"My grandma's side are from Vittoria."  
  
Bucky's eyes widened in surprise. "No shit. My family's from Gela."  
  
"My Ma has always said she wants me to settle down with a nice Scillian boy." Maria may have been joking but the pressure of that joke made him feel incredibly nervous. This was only their first date for christ sake. Maria was evidently able to sense Bucky's nerves. "I'm joking by the way. Well no, my Ma does want that, but I'm not expecting that to be you."  
  
Bucky released a heavy sigh as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. They reached the small Italian restaurant, aptly named _Little Italy_ and were promptly shown to the corner booth Bucky had reserved for them. "Well, as a fellow Scillian you're gonna love the food here. The chef is from Palermo and I know their cooking is usually a little commercialised but this guy knows what he's doing." Bucky ordered for the two of them and ordered a bottle of Chianti Classico for the table using the more than passable fake ID that Natasha had made him way back when they were in Middle School. Back then it had only been a thing that the redhead did for laughs, a small way to rebel against the system. But Bucky had recently found himself more and more grateful for Natasha's gift of forgery. "So, where's the rest of your family from?"  
  
"Quebec. My parents moved to Vancouver when my dad joined the army." Bucky nodded along, intrigued to know more about the beautiful woman sat opposite him. "Though he got reposted a few times when I was a kid."  
  
They spent most of the meal chatting away about their families and their upbringings. Maria spoke about what it was like growing up in a military family and Bucky told her what it was like to be the only guy in an all-female household. They had a lot in common and the night flowed without a hitch- well almost if you discount the heated debate about the quality of the tiramisu served at _Little Italy_. Bucky covered the cheque whilst Maria was in the bathroom, much to her annoyance, and insisted on walking her back to her dorm, despite Maria's mentions of her Middleweight Championship title.  
  
For the entirety of the walk, Bucky was toying with the idea of trying for a kiss at the end. If it went well then all was good but if not then it would put their newly formed friendship group in a very awkward position. They had arrived at the door to her building and Bucky took a brave step forward. "I uh, I had a really good time tonight." His eyes flicked down towards Maria's still glossy lips and his mind wondered what they would taste like.  
  
"So did I." Luckily, being the bold individual that she was, Maria made the decision for him as she crashed her lips to his.  
  
"We should do this again sometime." He said dumbly once they broke away.  
  
" _Or_ , we could admit that neither of us actually want to get into a relationship in the first week of our first year at college and just skip ahead to the part that everybody wants," Maria said matter-of-factly.  
  
"What do you mean?"

"I mean Natasha's gone out for a run which means I have an empty room for about an hour." Maria swiped her ID badge to open the main door. "And as much as I love the sight of you in those skinny jeans I'd much rather see you out of them." Bucky was genuinely dumbstruck for a moment, had Maria really just propositioned him? "So we could either call it a night now, go on a dozen more dates that set us both into a relationship that means we're tied down for what's supposed to be the best part of our lives. _Or_ we could go upstairs and have some real fun. The choice is yours." She finished with a shrug.  
  
"You're a lovely gal and I'd really love to get to know you more." He wasn't sure which way he was going to play this so he mentally flipped a coin which predictably landed on the same side as most of his bloodstream. "But I have a semi right now that would most definitely benefit from some attention."  
  
Bucky's sly smirk quickly matched Maria's own as the two rushed up to Maria's bedroom.

~*~

  
Steve couldn’t exactly say he was jealous of Bucky and Maria; what right did he have to be jealous? Bucky didn’t even know he was gay let alone interested, no one knew. How would they when he refused to tell anyone? It’s not that he was afraid to come out. He knew that society had become far more accepting of different sexualities. But how could he tell people if he didn’t truly know himself. He knows he has a preference, but he can’t say that he’s entirely uninterested in women; he does find some of them attractive… just not as attractive as Bucky. Dammit! He had to get Bucky out of his head! Bucky’s currently in their room with Maria and he’s sat here in the quad drawing, trying to kill some time until they’re done.

At least the campus grounds inspire some artistic inspiration. The large oaks and the redbrick buildings really were something else. At the very least he had his art to draw his mind away from whatever was happening in his room between Maria and Bucky. He can lose himself in his art, in the shades of the pencil and the smudges of the charcoal. His mind goes to a different place when he’s drawing. Which is probably why he barely even noticed when Natasha sat by him on the bench.

“You’re good at that.”

Steve felt his heart nearly thump out of his chest when the redhead spoke. “Christ! You’re a sneaky one.”

Natasha merely shrugged as though she heard that all the time. “Maria and Bucky going at it again?” She asked, drawing his mind back to the very reason why he was sat out here in the afternoon heat. Steve nodded, casting his gaze back down to his sketchpad. “Those two are like rabbits.”

“I’ve learnt to give it a couple of hours before I head back up there.”

“Learnt that the hard way huh?”

“Definitely scarred for life,” Steve said with a chuckle. “What brings you out here?”

“Thought I’d get a decent run in whilst the weather’s good.” Steve finally noticed her get up; leggings and a tank top, a light glaze of sweat on her forehead. “s'posed to rain later.”

“You’ll have to let me know next time.”

“Maybe I will.” Natasha bumped his shoulder lightly with her own.

This seems like as good a time as any to ask her out. “Sounds like a date.” He could feel the blush creeping up his neck as he awaited her response and watched her from the corner of his eye.

“You’re sweet Steve.” A smile spread across his face as he turned to look at her. Maybe asking girls out wasn’t as hard as he thought it would be. “But I tend to prefer guys who are actually into women…”

Steve’s face dropped and his eyes went wide. “What- I’m not-“ By the look on Natasha’s face there was no fooling her, she knew. “How did you know?”

“Call it a females intuition… Or Maria’s perceptiveness.”

“Right… so that’s a no on the date?”

“Afraid so.” She bumped his shoulder again and gave him a small smile. “Besides, I’d be too much for you.”

“You’re probably right,” Steve said, reciprocating her small smile. Silence ensued and he knew she was waiting for him to say something. “I’m just not sure I’m ready to…” He flailed his hands about trying to look for the words. By Natasha’s nod, he could tell she understood what he was trying to say. “Not until I figure it out for myself.”

“I get it, you’re trying to figure out who you are for yourself before you start telling other people.” She was quiet for a moment. “But you know it’s only going to be harder for you, living in secret.”

“I know.” He sighed deeply. He did know. He’d been living in secret for years now but he still wasn’t ready. “But until I figure myself out… Once I know who I am I’ll be ready to...” He shrugged not really knowing how to finish his sentence.

“Well, when you do figure out who you are” Natasha placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “We’ll all be here for you.” Steve nodded his thanks and Natasha stood, stretching her legs to restart her run. “Oh and when it’s safe to enter your room again tell Bucky we have a party to go to tomorrow.”

“Whos party?”

“That football player that crashed into us the other night. He’s having a party tomorrow and invited us to thank us for looking after him.” She shrugged a single shoulder. “It’s free booze and there’s a beer pong tourney. Should be fun.”

“Sounds good. I’ll let him know.”

Natasha gave him one last nod before putting her headphones in and jogging on.

“Friends!” Thor bellowed from across the room. “I am so pleased that you could make it to our gathering. I’m glad to see our good friend Natasha informed you all of your invites.”  
  
It’d be wrong to say Steve hated parties; he didn’t, he just wasn’t used to them. In high school, when he was just a scrawny little kid, he barely got invited to them. Sharon, his only friend for the first few years of high school, tried to get him invited to a few of the parties that she always got invited to, but nobody wanted the sickly kid with asthma to ruin their party. It wasn’t until he got his growth spurt and made it onto the soccer team that people started to invite him. And that wasn’t until the last few years of high school so he really wasn’t used to them at all. So now that his college life seemed to consist of a party every other night, this really was a new life for Steve. The others, however, seemed to be right at home in the party scene, and at least their comfortability was helping him somewhat.  
  
“Yeah well, she said there was free booze and beer pong so how could we refuse?” Bucky said as he helped himself to one of the beer cans on the table covered in a banquet of booze.  
  
“Of course! Plenty of alcohol for those who aided me when I was not able to do so myself.” Thor plucked up several cans of beer and handed one to each of them. “Come, I would like to introduce you to some of my fellows.”  
  
“Has this guy stepped out of a Shakespeare play?” Natasha joked as she leaned in to whisper to Steve.  
  
“Apparently his parents are rich Swiss bankers. Thor and his brother were sent to a boarding school in England. Hence the accent.”  
  
“And the theatrics?” Natasha asked with a raised eyebrow.  
  
Steve shrugged. “A by-product of being in the public eye?”  
  
“A by-product of being a twat more like.”  
  
“It’s free booze.” Steve pointed out. “Do you really have a problem with that?”  
  
Natasha raised her can in salute. “Touché Rogers.”  
  
“Friends, allow me to introduce you to my love, Jane Foster.” Thor gestured towards a petite brunette with glasses, the very definition of the ‘science type’. “And her friend Darcy.” He pointed towards an even smaller woman with dark brown hair, bordering on black with glasses that dominated the most part of her face. “Jane, Darcy, these are the ones that helped me return to my quarters after a night of much drinking and laughter.”  
  
“Ah, so you’re the ones I should thank for saving my boyfriend,” Jane said as she curled herself around Thor’s muscular bicep, slightly protective of her boyfriend when in the presence of other beautiful women. “Sorry, Thor tends to get a little wild during the pre-game season.”  
  
“Yeah, if I were you guys I would’ve just left his sorry ass where I found him,” Darcy added.  
  
“Ah Darcy, I am forever touched by your words. Come now, the beer pong is about to start.”  
  
Bucky insisted that they split the four of them into boys versus girl, thinking that he and Steve would have the edge over the two girls and thus win. When Steve had pointed out the competitiveness in both Natasha and Maria as they threatened to kick both of their ass', Bucky merely shrugged it off as mind games. So Steve had to refrain himself from saying the words "I told you so" when the girls beat them by an embarrassing margin.  
  
"Boys, grab us a few drinks will ya. Looks like we'll be here for a while." Natasha teased as the next round was set up.  
  
Natasha and Maria had a pretty impressive streak, managing to win five games before they were narrowly beaten by two basketball players. One of which Steve noticed was flirting with Natasha for the duration of the game and for a long time afterwards. Which is why Steve wasn't very surprised when he went to top up the drinks only to turn around and see Natasha and said basketball player in a full-on lip-lock. It wouldn't be so bad but just as his luck would have it, Bucky and Maria had left the party half an hour ago to pursue other activities. Which meant Steve was now stranded at this party. Alone.  
  
Steve stared at the drink selection for a long while, mulling over his options before a small tumbler glass was thrust in his vision. "Here, you're gonna need something a lot stronger to deal with the heartbreak." The voice belonging to the arm said.  
  
Steve took hold of the glass. "What? I'm not heartbroken." He said dumbly as his eyes met the large brown ones in front of him belonging to a short goateed man. "What're you talking about."  
  
"That redhead over there making out with the absurdly tall basketball player." The guy said, using his own tumbler to point in the direction of the two, who had momentarily stopped to come up for air. "You keep looking back over to them. So what is it? You tried talking to her and she rejected you, only to start making out with that guy?"  
  
"What? No. We came as a group. She was supposed to stick with me when the other two left but now she's a little preoccupied." Steve took a sip of the brown liquid and grimaced immediately as the alcohol burned a pathway down his throat, leaving a mark of its presence on everywhere it had been.  
  
"Yeah, that'll put some hairs on your chest." The guy laughed as Steve attempted not to spit up the drink. "Well, it looks like Red has other plans. She's well and truly ditched you."  
  
Steve turned just in time to see Natasha leaving with the basketball player as a text came through on his phone: Something's _come up ;) have to go._  
  
"Well looks like I've lost my last friend at this party."  
  
"Looks like you're in need of a new one, and you're in luck." the guy stuck out his hand for Steve to shake. "Tony Stark."  
  
"Steve Rogers."  
  
"Right Steve." Tony reached an arm around his shoulder. "Fuck your other friends. Tonight, I'm going to teach you how to live. What're you into? Girls, guys, both, neither? Doesn't matter, we'll work it out."  
  
Tony definitely seemed to have a case of verbal diarrhea, which Steve couldn't really complain about, he wasn't much of a talker so it helped to let Tony take the lead on conversation. And it definitely helped to make the party a lot more enjoyable to have Tony around.

  
Steve knew he was good at soccer, not that he liked to brag about it much. But he was a decent player before he got his growth spurt and once he did and was finally fit enough to play on the highschool team... Well there was no stopping him really. He quickly became the teams top goal scorer and after their previous captain endured a tragic injury that had him out for the rest of the season, Steve was made Captain. Which he didn't think he was suited for but after a few outstanding results from the squad, it was clear he was a natural.

Still, he was pretty nervous that he wouldn't make it on to the squad. Only the best of the best got chosen for the first team and the guys he was training with were pretty good.

"Stop worrying." Bucky said as he slapped his arm around Steve's shoulders. "We impressed during the drills so now we just have to try and stand out during the game."

The drills were relatively simple. The dribbling drills and shooting drills went by with flying colours though Steve was pretty sure he messed up a fair bit with the tackling drill, going in a bit heavy at times forgetting that he was a lot bigger than he used to be. A by-product of recently beefing up a fair bit.

"Yeah, you're right Buck." Steve squirted some water on his face before offering Bucky the bottle to do the same.

"Also, we've got company." Bucky pointed over to the seats wear a tiny looking Natasha was sat watching, only noticeable by the curly red hair that stood out at such a distance.

"Alright you maggots! I want a fair game, no dangerous tackles" Coach Phillips yelled looking directly at Steve. "I don't want any injuries right before the season starts. Rogers, Wilson. You two are captains."

Steve went to join the coach at the halfway line. The coach flipped and coin and decided that Steve's team would kick off first. After shaking hands with the other captain, the coach blew his whistle and the game kicked off.

By halftime they were losing 2-1 with Steve scoring the only goal for their team. Bucky hadn't had much of a chance to get into the game and Steve knew if he didn't do something to change that Bucky wasn't going to get chosen for the first team.

"Okay team" Steve called the team together for a huddle. "Their right back is pretty weak so I think we can exploit that. Get the ball to Bucky on that left wing and I'm pretty sure we can get back into this game." With the plan set they got ready to get the second half underway.

Steve had intercepted the ball from a sloppy pass from one of the midfielders and could see Bucky making a run down the left side. He crossed the ball over to Bucky who took a touch to edge into the box and took a shot at goal. The keeper managed to get a hand to it and the ball bounced back into Steve's path. As much as he wanted to help Bucky shine a bit more he couldn't really pass up this opportunity, there was only 5 minutes left on the clock and this might be the last opportunity they have to equalise.

Steve made up his mind and took a shot first time, sending the ball hurling towards the top corner and well out of the keepers reach, bringing the score to 2-2.

The match ended with a draw and the players began a cool down whilst the coach deliberated over the first team.

"You did good Stevie." Bucky said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You'll definitely make the squad."

"I sure hope you do. We're gonna need a goal scorer like you on the team." The other captain said as he came to join the two guys. "Sam Wilson."

"You weren't so bad yourslef" Steve shook Sam's hand and then introduced the two of them.

"Right, those that made it to the first team are as follows" the coach began to reel off a list of names and with each name that wasn't Rogers or Barnes, Steve began to get more nervous. "Wilson, O'Donoghue, Smith, Rogers" Bucky nudged Steve in a supportive gesture but he couldn't relax until he knew that both of them had made it. "Jones, Davies and O'Brien. Rogers, I want you as team captain. You guys are expected to attend training three times a week and be available for weekend matches. The rest of you will be on the reserves and will still need to attend the training sessions." Steve's face dropped and he saw Bucky physically deflate. "I'll see you guys Monday."

"Shit. Sorry man." Sam offered in condolence.

"Maybe I can talk to the coach." Steve suggested. If he's captain then maybe he could put in a good word for Bucky.

"Don't worry about it." Bucky tried to play off as nonchalant but Steve could see that it bothered him. "Well done you two, you guys did good. I gotta go, I promised Maria I'd meet her after tryouts." He said as he turned to leave the football field.

"I'll uh, I'll see you later then." Steve yelled to the retreating figure of Bucky, who simply put a hand up to wave rather than turn around. Steve had no idea how to make this right but he was certain he was going to get Bucky on the first team one way or another.

  
~*~

Natasha’s phone went off again and she groaned as she saw another text message. She rolled her eyes and turned her phone over so that the screen was facing downward on the table.

“Well someone’s popular,” Bucky said as her phone went off again. “That’s the fourth time that’s gone off.” Natasha’s phone went off for the fifth time and she groaned again before she put it on silent. “This got anything to do with that guy Steve saw you hooking up with at the party the other night?”

Natasha rolled her eyes. “I don’t get what he didn’t understand about ‘casual hook-up’.”

“Maybe he wants more,” Bucky suggested with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“Oh please. I’m good but I don’t think I’m that good.”

Bucky smirked at her. “What’s wrong with him? Crooked dick?” Natasha snorted with laughter. “Not that good? Did he have an embarrassing O face?”

“He was okay.” Which was a bit of an overstatement really. “Don’t think I’ll be signing up for round two.”

Bucky nodded but didn’t look as though he was intending on dropping the topic. “So why not?”

“I’m just not looking for anything serious at the moment.” Bucky raised a questioning eyebrow and Natasha sighed deeply. “I had a bad breakup at the end of high school and I’m just, I dunno.” She shrugged. “I’m just looking to have some fun I guess.”

“Well, you might want to tell him that.” He said as he nodded towards her phone.

“I’ll leave him to stew for a while.” Natasha shifted in her seat. “So you and Maria seem to be hitting it off quite well. Steve is practically living in the quad these days.”

Bucky ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, think we’re just gonna keep things casual for now.”

“Bit hypocritical of you to question me about getting into a relationship isn’t it?” If she was being honest, she was somewhat grateful about that. If the relationship between the two of them went sour then that would really make things awkward for their little group. “So the two of you are just traumatising poor Steve then.”

“We do try to give him fair warning. How’s he taking it?”

“As well as anyone with a secret crush on their roommate could.” She remembers seeing him moping around the party when Bucky and Maria left early. “Think he made a friend at Thor’s party.” Bucky’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Not that kind of friend. But it’s good for him. To not just have you.”

Bucky nodded in understanding. “Yeah maybe.” Natasha could’ve sworn he looked a little jealous at the thought of Steve having other friends, but it's only momentary before his expression changed again. “Speaking of new friends.” Natasha groaned; she should’ve known it wasn’t going to be that easy. “You’re drinking buddy from the other night? Wanna tell me a bit about that?”

“I would but…” She picked up her phone and her gym bag from the floor. “I have an audition to get to. Good luck with try-outs.” She called over her shoulder as she headed in the direction of the dance studio.

  
The dance studio was brand new, state of the art studios recently refurbished, part of the main reason why she chose MCU in the first place. She entered the locker room filled with other hopefuls and the icy attitude of her fellow ballerinas was a welcomed familiarity. There was no friendship amongst ballerinas. Each of them were determined to be the best and if you wanted to be the best you couldn’t waste time being friendly.

Natasha couldn’t complain about the individualist attitude of ballerinas. She too wanted to be the best, though not for her own ego. No, she wanted to be the best because Phil thought that was what she was capable of, and she’d be damned if she was going to let Phil down. So she too would put on the icy exterior and focus on her own stretches and not get to know the other girls lining up on the barre.

“Ladies, in a line!” A tall blonde woman in a slick grey skirt and suit jacket entered the studio. “Now ladies!” Her accent was thick, laced with Russian, and it reminded her of her mother’s, or at least what she vaguely remembers of her mother, but in a harsher tone. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a tight bun matching the ones worn by the other girls in the room and she carried with her a long stick which she tapped on the floor with every command uttered.  
After having the group demonstrate the basics: 1st through to 5th and a few uncomplicated sequences, the instructor commanded them to line up on the barre.

“Ladies, I am Madame B. I am the ballet instructor here at Marvel City University.” Madame B used her stick to straighten one of the girl's backs and made a slight noise that gestured disapproval. “Today I shall be assigning roles for the University’s production of the Nutcracker.” She used her stick to correct another girls posture. “Should you be chosen to feature in the production you will attend rehearsals twice a week, every week in the weeks leading up to the performance.” Madame B stopped as she walked past Natasha but she wasn’t worried, her posture was nothing short of perfect so she wasn’t surprised when the woman gave a curt nod and carried on walking.

After a few more demonstrations as a group, Madame B called them up one by one to display a set sequence of movements. Madame B wasn’t a very expressive woman, her facial expressions remained neutral throughout each performance, yet you could still distinguish the girls who impressed her and the ones who did not. Those who impressed her received a nod, those who didn’t received nothing. The few who really impressed were given a longer sequence of moves to recite.

Natasha expected to be one of the few to impress, what she didn’t expect was for Madame to continue shouting instructions for her. It started off simple, a pirouette here and an entrechat there, but then they became more complicated as Madame began calling out for Natasha to perform a grand jete and a tours en l'air. Natasha executed each move perfectly, ending the sequence back in 1st and remaining perfectly still. Madame said nothing, nor did she nod, simply called the next girl forward and Natasha returned to her position on the barre with the other girls.

She didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. The girls who got no response at all seemed to display nothing special, not lacking in talent but lacking in finesse. Natasha had received no response but she refused to believe it was because of her performance.

When the last girl returned to the barre Madame B began to call individuals to come forward, the first few were given minor roles in the performance; trees and winds. The next batch received slightly bigger roles; mice and owls, bunnies and angels. The roles were dwindling fast and Natasha had still not been cast. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t starting to feel a little nervous, she couldn’t afford to not get a role, her scholarship was dependent on her participating in at least two university performances each year. But she didn’t let it show on her face, her face remained calm and neutral.

“Romanova!” It struck Natasha to hear the Russian pronunciation of her name, she hadn’t heard it since they left Russia all those years ago. Natasha ignored the reminder of her early years and stepped forward. Keeping her posture straight and her face neutral. “Clara.”

Natasha stopped herself from sighing in relief, she would celebrate later, for now, she simply nodded and returned to the barre, as expected of her. She could feel the eyes on her, the scowls of the girls who thought themselves better than her. That’s fine though, they’re allowed to think as they please, many girls in the past had thought themselves better than her but Natasha proved them wrong; she always proves them wrong.

She held her head high when the auditions were over, they may hate her but their hatred didn’t make them better than her and her performance proved that. She didn’t gloat though, nor did she celebrate in front of the other girls; Phil had always taught her to be humble. She’ll wait until she’s far enough before she calls Laura to celebrate.

She found a quiet spot near the soccer field where she could see Bucky and Steve practising for their try-outs. Laura will be at home and Clint should’ve finished work by now so she can call them.

She stared at the blank screen as she waited for Laura to pick up the call. It may have only been a few days since they dropped her off here but she’d more than missed the two of them. Clint used to always take her to rehearsals after Phil died and Laura made a point of attending every one of her performances.

Clint’s face filled the screen having answered the call on behalf of his wife and a smile instantly spread across Natasha’s face at the sight. “What, you miss us already?”

“Yeah right, I don’t think I’m ever coming back.” Natasha joked.

“Oh please” Laura appeared beside Clint; the screen filled with the two faces. “I’ll drag your ass back here myself if I have to!”

“I wouldn’t want to mess with her if I was you.” Clint gestured to his wife. “Pregnancy has made her scary.” He mock whispered, earning him a solid whack up the back of his head. “What’s up?”

“Just finished auditions for the Christmas performance.”

“How did it go?” They both asked at the same time.

Natasha shrugged, pretending as though it wasn’t a big deal. “Well, you know… I got the lead part.” Loud squeals came from her phone and she had to turn the volume down so the people a few rows over couldn’t hear. “Okay, okay, calm down. It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Not a big deal? Are you kidding me? This is a massive deal! Laura tell her this is a massive deal.”

“This is a huge deal baby, we’re so proud.” Natasha felt the content spread through her, Laura and Clint always acted like proud parents whenever she told them of her achievements. “When is it? Can you get us tickets?”

“To early to get tickets but I think it’s on the 15th of December.” Clint’s face dropped when she said the date. “What’s up?”

Clint ran a hand through his short blonde hair. “I was gonna make it a surprise but it looks like I’ve just fucked up instead.” Clint left the view of the screen, leaving Natasha and Laura to wonder what he was talking about. He returned holding two tickets. “I booked us a short trip. Thought it’d be nice to go away for a few days before Natasha comes back for Christmas. Figured it’d be a while before we get some time to go away just the two of us.”

Laura gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Thank you. But we can’t miss her performance.”

“I know, I’ll call up tomorrow and see if I can get a refund.”

“No. You two should go.” It hurts her to say it but she knew the two of them needed this. They’d been there for her since Phil passed and now that she’s gone they’ve only got a few months before the baby arrives and they’re back to taking care of someone else. “You guys have been to every one of my performances. You can miss this one.”

“Nah uh. Not happening.” Clint said firmly. “We’re gonna see you twirl around in the… What was it called?”

“The Nutcracker, dipshit.” Natasha rolled her eyes. She’s not sure why Clint bothered to turn up to her performances. He usually fell asleep in the first 15 minutes leaving Laura to wake him up at the end to clap in time. “Look, you two deserve to have some time away. I’m sure I can fill the seats with some friends.”

“Nope, I’m not having it. No way I’m not going to see my baby’s first University performance.” Natasha rolled her eyes again. Laura had referred to her as ‘her baby’ from the first few times they had met. Natasha had hated it at first, mistook it as a patronising term opposed to the endearment it was supposed to be. But after a while she had grown to appreciate the affection, after a lifetime of few people showing the level of care that Laura had shown her, it was quite nice to hear. “We’ll get an earlier flight back.”

“No. You guys are gonna go and enjoy your holiday. I’ll send your pictures to security and make sure they don’t let you in.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, they’ll be other performances.” Natasha gave the couple a wide smile. “You’ll just have to make it up to me with an awesome Christmas present.”

“Okay, well make sure you go out and celebrate. You still got that flask I gave you?” Natasha dug into her gym bag to find the flask that she’d packed, she figured it would come in handy regardless of the result of today's audition. She held it up to the camera for Laura to see. “Atta girl!”

“Make sure you stay out of trouble,” Clint warned.

“When do I ever?” Natasha gathered up her things and started to leave the soccer field. It didn’t look like the boys were gonna be done anytime soon so she may as well head back to her room to wait them out. “I’ll call you guys soon.”

After several congratulations and goodbyes, Natasha ended the video call and began making her way back across the campus grounds. The boys might not be finished for a while but Maria should be done in an hour or so; some kind of boxercise training.

She was walking through the quad when she heard a familiar voice.

“You’re not gonna threaten to stab me again are you?” She turned around to see the shabby haired guy she was talking to the other night. “cause that’s not how I planned to spend my evening.”

“So you really are stalking me,” Natasha said as she joined Bruce by the fountain.

“Uh, I think you’ll find I was here first.”

“Well, I was minding my own business before you called me over here.” She countered.

“As was I” Bruce indicated towards the book he was reading; a worn copy of Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Dork. “If I recall correctly, it was your turn to bring the booze."

Natasha gave him a small smirk as she reached for the flask in her bag. “You’re in luck. We’re celebrating.” She uncapped the flask and took a long swig. She always had loved vodka, Clint said it was to do with her Russian blood. “And it’s good stuff too.” She handed the flask over to Bruce.

“It’s not roofied is it?” He joked as he took a swig, his reaction was exactly the same as with the bourbon, evidently not someone used to drinking alcohol without a mixer. “So what are we celebrating.”

“You’re looking at the new Clara in the University’s Christmas production of the Nutcracker.” The smugness that she couldn’t display earlier seeped through a little.

“Congratulations, I did not peg you as a ballerina.” Natasha raised a questioning eyebrow. “Aren’t ballerina’s supposed to be gentle, the first time we met you threatened me and told me that you know self-defence.”

“Well, Phil did want us to be well-rounded individuals.” Natasha stole back the flask and took another swig. “He gave us the option of what sports we wanted to do. Clint wanted to do archery and I wanted to do ballet. Phil made it happen.”

“He sounds like he was a great guy. What happened to him?” Natasha gave him a curious look; she’d never said he was dead. “You talk about him in the past tense.”

“He died five years ago. Was killed actually.” Her throat caught around the words, she rarely talked about Phil to anyone. She didn’t tell Matt until two years after meeting him and they were good friends by then, verging onto being more than friends. So she’s not entirely sure why she’s telling Bruce, this man that she’d only met once before. “Stabbed through the heart during an attempted robbery.”

“That must’ve been hard.”

“It was. You’d think I’d be used to that sort of thing by now but…”

“It never gets easier.” His voice mirrored the grief carried in her own. “My mom was murdered when I was 9. Thought death would be easy after that. But then my Aunt Susan passed.” A silence fell over them where the conversation had gone from humorous to depressing in a matter of minutes. She couldn’t seem to think of a way to move the conversation on to a more light-hearted topic, luckily for her, Bruce seemed slightly more socially adept than she is. “So I take it the other ballerinas weren’t too pleased about not landing the leading role. You might have to use that knife yet.”

Natasha gave a snort of laughter, slightly amazed by Bruce’s ability to lighten the mood so easily. “There will definitely be a few of them who are out for my blood.”

“So are you able to stand on your toes then?”

“It’s called en pointe.” Natasha rolled her eyes at him. “That’s sort of basic in ballet.”

“I think I’m gonna need a demonstration.” He said smugly as he took another swig of the vodka, his reactions less dramatic as he became accustomed to the strong liquid.

“I’ve got the leading role in a ballet production and you’re questioning my abilities?”

“What can I say, I’m a man of science.” He offered as his defence. “I need things to be proven before I can believe them.”

“Fine.” She stood tall and lifted herself en pointe. She shouldn’t do it without the proper footwear but she’d been doing it since she was a kid, trying to mimic the ballerinas she saw in the movies. “Satisfied?”

“Is that all I get?”

“Well, I’m not gonna start doing pirouettes in the middle of campus am I?”

“I guess I’ll just have to come to see the show then,” Bruce said matter-of-factly.

Natasha watched him smile smugly at her, a small smirk playing on her lips. The sound of her phone going off brought her focus back. She looked at the caller ID and groaned, this guy really wasn’t getting the message. She was going to have to spell it out for him.

“I should probably get this.” She ignored the slightly disappointed look on Bruce’s face. “Any advice on how to make a guy understand that you’re not interested?”

“With all of my experience?” Bruce joked. “Go easy on him. He’s probably gonna be heartbroken.”

Natasha gave him one last small smile before collecting her stuff and heading back towards her room. She dare not think about the implications of Bruce’s comment, or the look on his face when she left. Afterall, she had a heart to break.


	3. Physics for Dummies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor makes a new friend and hatches a genius plan for his brother.  
> Tony's new lab assistant is a bit on the young side.  
> Clint really isn't any good with interviews.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that I've taken so long to do an update. I'm limited to writing only on weekends and I wanted to finish my other fic before continuing with this one. But now that that one is done I'll try to update this one regularly.

“You have a formidable throw.” The ball had been kicked pretty far from the post and Thor had braced himself for the long jog to retrieve it. Yet he was saved the journey when the ball was returned to him when he was at least a good 60 yards away, and there was still a fair bit of heat in the throw as he caught the ball. “Exceptional accuracy too.”

“There was a reason I was a Quarterback for my home team.” The woman said with a shrug. “Though I think your team may need a new kicker.”

“Haha yes, well I am trying to train him but he doesn’t seem to be getting any better.” Thor threw the ball back to where some of his teammates were stood further upfield. “So you don’t play for the MCU team?”

The woman shrugged again. “I train with them. But seeing as I’m only here for a year coach didn’t see the point in adapting the team around my playing style.”

“A foolish decision made by the coach indeed. So you’re an exchange student.” The woman nodded. “Where from?”

“Sweden.”

Thor’s face gleamed with joy. In all his years spent in America, he rarely came across a fellow Swede. “Finally, someone from my home country. This truly is such a joy.” He held out his hand. “I am Thor Odinson.”

“Brunhilde Valkyrie. But people just call me Bru or Val.” She gave his hand a firm shake and Thor could feel the power in that grip that was used to launch the ball 60 yards through the air. The coach really was foolish not to have her on the team, he’d have to try and fix that. “I thought your family were Swiss.”

“Someone started that rumour a few years back.” Thor couldn’t help but roll his eyes, those rumours had started during his first year at college and now everyone seemed to believe that he was the son of a wealthy Swiss banker. Whilst they may have right about his family having a reasonably sized fortune, they definitely weren’t Swiss. “Alas my family are from Sweden, my brother Loki and I moved out here for college.”

“Did your parents intentionally go down the Norse God route when naming you two?”

“Haha well, it would appear so.” In truth, it seemed the whole Odinson family were named after some kind of Norse God and the tradition seemed to be sticking around to stay. “So Val, how are you finding MCU. I’m sure you’ve tried the marvellous burritos at the guild of students, they are by far the best you will try.”

“I haven’t yet, my time’s been spent frequenting the student bar.”

“Ah yes, I too frequent there on many a night when I am not training. But I must take you to try these burritos one day, and perhaps I can show you around the campus too. I’m sure it’ll help you to feel more at home to have a fellow Swede show you around.”

“Thor!” Thor turned at the sound of his name to see Jane walking through the football field.

His face instantly lit up and he embraced her as soon as she made it over to him and Val. “Jane my love, your class is over already?”

“Yeah, you said you’d meet me for lunch remember.”

“I assume lunch will be burritos,” Val commented with a slight chuckle.

“Oh god no. Thor only thinks they’re good because he’s never had one before and refuses to try them from anywhere else.”

“Why replace what is already perfect.” Thor defended.

“Noted.” Val extended her hand to Jane. “I’m Val by the way.”

“Jane, Thor’s girlfriend.”

“Val is also from Sweden,” Thor said with sheer excitement. “I’ve promised to show her around some time to make her feel better settled here.”

“Well, that’s very kind of you,” Jane said as she wrapped herself around his arm, something she did often when in the presence of other females. “Anyway, I’ve only got an hour before my next class so we better get going if we wanted to have time to eat and do _other_ activities.” Well, that certainly piqued his interest.

“Yes, it was a pleasure meeting you Val.” He extended his hand for another shake. “I shall be sure to speak to the coach about having you on the team. There is no reason for the team to miss out on having a player with such a formidable throw as yours.”

Eager to get a move on, Jane steered him away from Val as they said their goodbyes and led him across the football field. Once they were out of earshot Jane said, “She’s quite pretty isn’t she.”

He definitely knew this trick, and he definitely knew how to get around it. “Objectively so, yes.”

“Objectively so?”

“Yes, the typical individual attracted to women would find her pretty.” He turned to face her and gave her a quick peck to her lips. “But I have only eyes for one individual.” Jane’s smile beamed up at him and she tiptoed to give him another kiss as her hand snaked around his waist. Yeah, he really did know how to get around that trick.

Waiting for Jane after her last class of the day had sort of become their tradition over the past few years. His evenings were almost always occupied with football practise so they’d agreed upon getting an early dinner together before he went for training, or to the gym- you didn’t get arms like his by skipping a gym session. Not that he and Jane didn’t have other types of workouts that they could do. But Darcy had profusely begged them not to do that kind of work out in the room she shared with Jane and Loki practically lived in their room so there was no way they could take their activities there. The ideal scenario would be for the two of them to find someone to spend their time with. Perhaps each other? That could work. Though maybe he should run it by Jane.

The doors to Jane’s lecture hall opened as students began pouring out, eager to be free from their last class of the day. He waited for them all to clear out of the room, knowing full well that Jane would be at the front discussing some kind of theory with her professor.

“Thor! Good to see you.” Dr Selvig shook his hand and pulled him for a quick embrace. “How have you been.”

“I’ve been well, Dr Selvig.” He had always been fond of Dr Selvig, his enthusiasm for his subject and his students was inspiring. Plus he always gave time for Jane and her many questions and for that he would forever be grateful.

“Please, call me Eric.” Dr Selvig packed up his books and hooked his bag on his shoulder. “Sorry, I’m sure you’re eager to get a move on but your girlfriend here has been entertaining some of my wilder theories about the Einstein-Rosen bridge.”

Thor turned his confused look to Jane. “Wormholes.” She said with a pat on his chest. Science had never truly been his subject and sometimes he felt like nothing more than a child who only knew the basics of the stars when he was with Jane and doubly so when Dr Selvig was nearby.

“Ah, Eric I hate to interrupt your theorising, but I’m afraid Jane and I must be getting down to the canteen. The queues will only increase the longer we delay.”

“Yes yes, of course, you kids get going.” Dr Selvig shooed them out towards the hallway where they almost collided with Bruce Banner. “Ah, Bruce I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”

“Dr Selvig, Jane, Thor.” Bruce nodded to all three of them in greeting. “I wanted to go over my thesis with you if you had time.”

“Honestly Bruce I don’t know what I’m doing supervising this project. My knowledge of gamma is only about half of your own.” Bruce gave Dr Selvig a look that Thor had seen more than a few times on the scientist’s face. One that displayed a lack of confidence in his own ability despite the man literally being one of the leading figures in the field of gamma radiation and he’d only just started his PhD research. It both saddened and angered Thor to see that look on Banner’s face, a man of his intelligence should be confident enough in his abilities and yet he wasn’t. Dr Selvig checked his watch and sighed. “Bruce I’m gonna be late to a meeting with the Dean, but swing by my office in about 30 minutes, I’ll be happy to attempt to answer any of your questions. Or at the very least try not to get lost when you start talking of things way beyond my expertise.” Dr Selvig raced off down the hall towards the Dean’s office, waving over his shoulder as he disappeared down the hall.

“Banner, I didn’t see you at my party the other night. I’m sure I hadn’t consumed so much alcohol as to not recall your presence.”

“Oh yeah no I uh, I couldn’t make it.” Bruce ran a hand through his curly hair, a habit he’d often do in social situations he wasn’t too comfortable with. “I sort of got caught up with a project. But I’m pretty sure Tony was there.”

“Ah yes, I do recall seeing him. You missed a great party, dear friend. It truly was a night of merry enjoyment, though not so much when I was defeated at beer pong.”

“To be fair, Natasha and Maria were pretty amazing at it.” Jane wasn’t wrong, the two had shockingly great accuracy despite the number of beverages they’d consumed.

“Red-haired Natasha?” Bruce asked with a glimmer of curiosity in his voice. Both of them nodded in response. “I didn’t know you guys knew each other.”

“A chance encounter when she and her friends helped me return to my quarters a few nights back.”

“Thor got ridiculously drunk and her two mates had to help him back to his room.” Thor couldn’t do anything but smile in embarrassment. “How d’you know her?”

Bruce just shrugged. “We’ve bumped into each other a few times on campus and hung out a couple times.” Bruce tugged at the hairs at the back of his neck. “I’ll make sure I’m at your next party. I should probably head off” he jabbed his thumb in the direction of Dr Selvig’s office. “need to try and organise my thoughts a bit more before I wind up confusing the both of us.”

“Good day, Banner.”

“See ya, Bruce.” The two of them began making their way in the opposite direction, finally heading towards the canteen to get some dinner. “Seems like Bruce may have a little crush. Maybe we should try and help set the two of them up.”

“I suspect Banner has more game than you give him credit for dear Jane. Darcy, on the other hand, could do with a new companion…” Jane nodded along, listening eagerly. “What do you think about setting her up with my brother Loki?”

~*~

“Hi, Mr Stark? I’m Peter. Peter Parker.” The young boy held out his hand, practically bouncing from foot to foot in excitement. “Your new lab assistant.”

Tony looked at the kid over his sunglasses before repositioning them on his face. “How old are you kid?”

“14. But I’m 15 next month.”

“Yeah, no. That’s not gonna work. I’m working on some pretty complex stuff I need a professional, not some kid.” Seriously, he’d put in an application for a lab assistant a month before term started, stating the importance of his research and the need for a qualified assistant and they send him a kid? A literal kid? He was definitely gonna have some words with Dean Fury. Or maybe he could just hack into his computer again and get himself an actual assistant. Sure Fury was pissed the first time he did that but at least that will teach him. “Thanks for your time kid. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

“Wait, Mr Stark-“

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll write ya a good reference.” Tony waved him off as he got his computer started. “In fact, you write it and email it to me. And I’ll just put my signature on it.”

“Mr Stark, I’m definitely able to help you.” The kid defended frantically. “I get straight A’s in every science test and I have a 4.0 GPA.” Mildly impressive. “I’m kinda like you. Like, a kid genius I guess.” Peter said with a shrug, and oh was he gonna regret that statement.

“Like me huh?” Tony swiped his glasses from his face and gave the kid a hard stare for a moment, arms crossed under his chest. “Alright, let’s see what you got. What’s the unit for nuclear sizes?”

“Fermi,” Peter answered confidently.

“What’s Pa the unit of measurement for?”

“Pressure.”

“What’s the maximum velocity for the overturn of a car moving on a circular track with a radius of 100m? The coefficient of friction between the road and tyre is 0.2.”

Peter took a few seconds to work out the math before answering, “14 metres per second.” Peter sounded exasperated at having to prove his worth, but honestly, what did he expect? He was supposed to be assisting on some very advanced research. And he was a kid for Christ sake! A kid. “Come on Mr Stark, these are easy.”

“Okay, fine.” Tony thought for a while. If this kid’s supposed to be a genius then maybe he should ask some more challenging questions. “What was Schrodinger’s cat mind experiment?”

Peter smirked, portraying a look of confidence that Tony so often saw when he looked in the mirror; or on Bruce’s face whenever he proved him wrong on something, something that occured on far too many occasions. “A cat is placed in a sealed box with a radioactive sample, a Geiger counter and a bottle of poison. If the Geiger counter detects that the radioactive material has decayed, it triggers the bottle of poison to smash and the cat’s killed.” Okay, maybe this kid did know a thing or two. “The experiment was designed to illustrate the flaws of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, which states that a particle-”

“What’s M-Theory?”

“Are you even working on that?” Tony just gave him a blank stare and the kid sighed before explaining, “M theory, is the unification of all theories that relate to the four forces of nature. It postulates the existence of branes and we live in a 3-dimensional brane universe, which would be found among other branes. All matter is made up of open strings, and that it would be confined to our own **-** “

“Yeah, yeah. Alright, kid, I get it. You’re smart.” Annoyingly smart. Like Bruce-smart. “Just uh, see those formulas over there. Bruce can’t write for shit so I need them written out neater.” The kid might be smart but he really hasn’t got time to be babysitting anyone. He can put the kid to work whilst he gets on with the important stuff and he can swing by the Dean’s office tomorrow after his class. “Don’t touch anything. Don’t change anything. And definitely, don’t disrupt me.”

“Mr Stark I think I can-“ the look Tony gave him showed that there was no room for argument. “Yes, Mr Stark.” Peter sighed and started reading through the equations, squinting to try and make out the scribble Bruce called handwriting- that guy really can’t write for shit.

With that sorted at least, Tony could get back to the Ultron project. Bruce was supposed to be swinging by after his class to work on some of the calculations but in the meantime, he needed to balance this equation that he’d been working on since yesterday morning. For some reason, no matter what he tried, he just couldn’t seem to work it out. A coffee would be good right now, a boozy coffee would be even better but Bruce must’ve cleared out the lab the last time he was here because even his secret stash of bourbon was gone. Regular coffee it is.

Coffee in hand, Tony returned to the board only to find the Parker kid messing up his work. “What the hell are you doing?” he wrenched the marker from Peter’s hand. “I literally gave you 3 rules and you’ve managed to break all 3 in one go.”

“I uh… you just… you looked a little stuck so I thought I’d see if I could give it a shot.” Peter stuttered out. “I think I uh, I think I solved it.”

“Really, you think after one quick look that you’ve solved it?” Tony looked at the board and did the math in his head. Tilted his head to the side and recalculated. “Shit.” Maybe this kid really was a genius.

“You’re working on an AI?”

“Not just any AI kid. The most advanced AI you’ve ever seen.” Tony retrieved the schematics to the suit he was building. “The AI will be able to control this suit” he pointed to the suit he’d sketched out over the summer. Bruce had said it was too flashy but what did Bruce know anyway? That guy had no sense of fashion. Hell, he’d still be wearing corduroy trousers and flannel shirts if Tony hadn’t burned all the offensive garments when they arrived at the dorm room “to maintain the arc reactor-“

“The energy source your dad made.”

“You know your stuff kid.” Not many people knew about his dad’s achievements outside of the weapons industry. He may actually be starting to like this kid. “It’ll not only be able to make repairs but it’ll learn from those and be able to make improvements. It’ll change the future of green energy as we know it.”

“But aren’t you worried about the military applications?” God this kid sounded just like Bruce. “It sounds to me like this could literally be used as a weapon, detect and eliminate threats before they even arise. Pretty Orwellian if you ask me.”

“Sounds like someone wants to show off about their summer reading homework.” Tony rolled his eyes. “Kid, if the government wants to create an AI that will preemptively eliminate potential threats, there’s not much I can do to stop them. If I stop designing Ultron some other punk will eventually stumble upon the idea and then sell it directly to the government. At least I’m creating it to do good.”

“Even if you know it can be used to do wrong?”

“D’you wanna stand around and debate scientific philosophy and ethics or do you want to actually do some kickass ground-breaking science?” Tony asked with both eyebrows raised. Peter just raised both hands in surrender, clearly unwilling to pass up the opportunity to get more involved. Which made perfect sense, scientific curiosity always wins out. “That’s what I thought.” Tony jotted down the solved equation onto the schematics and erased the board, writing a fresh one in its place. “Now let’s see what you’ve got for this.”

Dr Pym’s classes were officially the worst. And not just because it was Physics 101 and this stuff seemed to be straight out of a _Physics for Dummies_ book. Like seriously people only took this class if it was a prerequisite for something else they wanted to do or if they hadn’t woken up on time on registration day and were left with all the crappy options- like Physics 101. Which is exactly what happened to him. Not that he could complain, if he hadn’t woken up late on registration day during _his_ first year at college then he would’ve never met Bruce in this very class six years ago and he would’ve been severely lacking in the ‘brother in all things scientific’ department- not a state he ever wanted to find himself in.

And now it seemed- by some twist of fate or just a dick move by karma- the same thing had happened to him this year. He’d set several reminders to register to teach the good classes, like Mechanics 101 or Robotics 302. But as per, when his alarm had gone off he’d simply hit the snooze button, rolled over, and had gone straight back to sleep. The result of which meant that he was back here. In Physics 101. With Dr Pym.

Only this time was much worse- he actually had to pay attention and his absence definitely wouldn’t go unnoticed. God, he hated that he had to teach- if you could call standing by the laptop and pressing the next button to move on to the next slid whilst Dr Pym droned on about the pretty basic curriculum that they were going to cover teaching. Why he felt the need to spend 30 minutes going over something that could literally fit on an A4 sheet Tony would never know- not to mention the fact that literally, no one gave a shit.

It was even worse knowing that Bruce was currently teaching Astrophysics 405 with Dr Selvig. That curly-haired fucker had woken up early on registration day to make sure he got a good class and didn’t bother to wake him up to do the same. Now Bruce was off teaching a class with Dr Selvig- who was batshit crazy by the way, and not in a bad way- whilst he was here listening to Dr Pym assign partners for the first assignment and begin his lecture on Newton’s Laws of Motion as if anyone in the room would be stupid enough to not understand that. No wonder his dad never liked this guy.

44 minutes into the lecture- yes he was counting every minute that went by- the doors to the lecture hall opened slightly as some poor freshman tried to sneak into the hall unnoticed. Unfortunately for said poor freshman, the door to the hall was right at the front, meaning that she couldn’t enter without being immediately being spotted by Dr Pym- not to mention the fact that her hair was sort of a curly beacon announcing her arrival, or the fact that her stunning figure could easily attract the attention of any person in any room, regardless of what was going on.

The first thing Tony thought when he saw her was _I want one_. Or two. Hell, he’d take a whole freaking shelf if they’re on offer. Was there a rule about sleeping with your students? Even if they’re not really your students given that he wasn’t a real teacher? He’d have to ask Fury next time he gets called into his office, which knowing how much Fury seems to love calling him to the office- well who wouldn’t want to look at his pretty face on multiple occasions?- would be any day now.

“Nice of you to finally join us, Ms…?”

“Romanoff. Natasha Romanoff.”

Dr Pym grunted in acknowledgement as he scanned the list of names for those supposed to be in the class- yet another thing that utterly sucked about this guy, he actually took attendance. “Well Miss Romanoff, you’re 45 minutes late-“

“Didn’t Einstein say time is relative?” The redhead- _Natasha_ \- said with a shrug. “Maybe you’re all just early.” The entire hall- including Tony himself- erupted into laughter, only to be silenced by an unimpressed looking Hank Pym.

“Would you like to give a reason for your late attendance,” Pym raised a hand to stop Natasha from speaking. “Sans the attempts at humour.”

Natasha rolled her eyes and sighed. “I had a ballet rehearsal that ran over.” A ballerina, well isn’t that intriguing. He’d been to the ballet a few times as a kid. Ballerinas were flexible. Tony liked flexible. “Madame B can vouch.”

“I don’t buy it. I need a demo.” Tony couldn’t help himself; he’d been biting down his constant running commentary for the past 47 minutes, he needed to verbalise the odd one every now and then just to keep his head from exploding.

Natasha gave him a sly smirk and damn that look could kill. “Sure. For $25 you can watch me do a demo for around 2 hours on the 15th of December.” 25 dollars to watch her twirl around in tights for 2 hours? Bargain! Tony knew his grin was verging on predatory but with the current images in his head, he couldn’t really help it.

“It’s a shame we won’t have the pleasure of your wit for the rest of the semester, Miss Romanoff. But partners have already been assigned and had you been on time I may have made an exception but-“

“I’ll be her partner.” Tony felt the intense heat of the scrutinising raised eyebrows form both Pym and Natasha. “Madame B’s the scary Russian lady right?” Natasha nodded. “That lady tells you to stay later, you’re not exactly gonna say no. So it’s not her fault she’s late.” Tony shrugged his shoulders. “Besides, I’m sure she needs to take this class for some other classes. Not exactly fair to hinder a woman’s entry to STEM all because of one late attendance.” He shrugged again to emphasise his final point and the warring look on Pym’s face told him he’d been successful.

“Fine. Mr Stark, quietly bring Miss Romanoff up to speed.” Pym didn’t wait for Tony and Natasha to find a spot in the corner of the hall before resuming his lecture. “Newton’s Second Law of Motion states that the rate of change of momentum…”

“Should I question why some random guy just stuck his neck out for me?” Natasha asked the moment they sat down at one of the corner desks.

“Maybe I meant what I said about women’s entry to STEM.” Natasha raised a single red eyebrow at him. “Or maybe I know exactly how boring Pym’s lectures are and could use a sassy redhead to make things a whole lot more interesting.” From this close up something about the redhead’s face seemed strikingly familiar. “Do I know you?” Natasha’s face scrunched up in thought. “We didn’t sleep together did we?”

“God no!” Tony gave her a pained look. “Not that I remember at least.”

“Oh, you’d definitely remember me.” He waggled his eyebrows when she rolled her eyes. “Okay, so we didn’t sleep together. And I’m pretty sure I haven’t tried to sleep with you” _yet_ “but you look really familiar.” He scratched his goatee as he racked his brain trying to think where he knows her from.

“Maybe I just have one of those faces?”

“That’s it!” Tony snapped his fingers as memories of that frat party a few weeks ago flooded back. “You’re Steve’s friend.” He didn’t see much of her face that night- on account of it being stuck to some guy’s face for most of the time- but from what he can remember he was pretty sure it was her. “You probably don’t recognise me given you were too busy tryna get some.” Natasha settled him with a look that he was pretty sure was supposed to be some kind of warning to not continue, but since when did he heed warnings? “no judgment. I was at that party to do the same thing.”

Natasha nodded slowly. “You’re the guy Steve was hanging out with when I left.”

“When you left to go and get some.” He punctuated that with a waggle of his eyebrows.

“If I here you talk about me _getting some_ again I will gut you.” Feisty too, he definitely liked this one. “And that’s a promise, not a threat.”

“I don’t doubt that you would.” He raised both hands in surrender. “Just to be clear, is it the term _getting some_ that you don’t like or just overall conversation about you getting laid that’s taboo?” Natasha gave him another threatening look. “See you look like you want to murder me but I can’t tell if it’s my terminology or topic choice. How can a guy avoid getting killed if you won’t tell me what’s triggering these murderous thoughts?”

He smirked despite being pretty certain that he was going to die soon. Luckily for him, the universe must’ve been on his side because instead of stabbing him in the eye or punching him in the gut, Natasha just smirked and said, “Are you gonna tell me what I need to be doing for this assignment or what?”

Tony rolled his eyes but smirked, nonetheless. Newton’s Laws of Motion might be piss-easy and agonisingly boring but at least he’d have a feisty, sassy redhead to make time go by a little faster.

~*~

Stressed was an understatement for what Clint felt right now. He was stressed the first time he was called to the school for Natasha’s truancies or when Laura broke her leg that one time when they attempted to ride a tandem bike- this is why he steered clear of sappy romance crap. But tonight’s stress levels seemed to exceed all those other moments. Tonight’s stress was a whole new level. Hence why he was currently stood over the kitchen sink, wrenching off the splashback tiles to be replaced with the new ones he brought over a year and a half ago and had never actually gotten ‘round to replacing.

He had started making progress with the new tile when a dish towel landed squarely on his head. He jumped as he dropped yet another tile in the sink and watched it shatter into dozens of tiny ceramic pieces. At this rate he wasn’t going to have enough tile left to finish the job- well he didn’t exactly say he was good at this stuff.

Clint spun on his heels to see his wife standing in the kitchen doorway, hands on her hips, sporting a thoroughly unimpressed look on her face. _What are you doing?_ Laura signed.

_Retiling the kitchen. What does it look like I’m doing?_

_Starting another job that you-_ Laura rolled her eyes. _Can you put your aides back in?_

Clint held up his grout covered hands, granting him another eye roll and a sigh as Laura collected his hearing aides from the counter and fitted them into his ears. He hated wearing the things when he was in the middle of a project- mainly because it meant he wouldn’t be able to hear Laura complain about his other unfinished projects like he wasn’t about to now.

“I assume after this you’re going to get back to the roof of the shed huh. And finish varnishing the patio.” Laura crossed her arms and rested them on her protruding stomach. “Or maybe you’ll finally put together that crib, which needs doing some time in the next three months by the way.”

“I’m gonna get round to it,” Clint muttered. He would eventually finish his long list of renovations, he just always got side-tracked whenever he was in the middle of one.

“I know you’re stressed baby but you really need to get some sleep,” Laura said as she rubbed small circles on his back whilst coaxing him towards the kitchen door. “You’re not gonna be able to sit that interview if you have to substitute your lack of sleep with a load of coffee. You know how you get with caffeine overload.”

Clint snorted with laughter. “They’d probably fire me, let alone pass me up for the promotion.” 

“They'd be stupid not to give it to you.” Which was probably true. He’d been working at Shield for almost seven years now and no one else really knew the ins and outs of the private security sector as he did. Well, maybe Mace, but how much does a CEO really know about the nitty-gritty of their company’s work? “Now, you’re gonna come upstairs with me, go to sleep, and then smash that interview in the morning. D’you hear me.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Laura punched him in the side but he just laughed and kissed her forehead. She always did know the right things to say whenever he got too stressed out.

But once they settled into bed he couldn’t help but start to overthink about this interview tomorrow. The Head of Security position was something he’d been aspiring to for years now and Jeffrey Mace had said he’d be great for it, but since the bribery scandal a few years back the investors had decided that they wanted all appointments to be handled by external bodies. Which meant that the job had to be widely advertised and Clint had to apply just like everybody else- and go for an interview just like everybody else.

Which really did suck given that he was pretty shit at interviews. Not to mention the fact that a lot was riding on him getting this promotion. The increase in pay would mean that Laura could actually take time off of work like she wanted to and stay at home with the baby for a while instead of the mere six weeks paid leave that the nursery gives her. It would also mean that he would be out of harms way, not that his job was particularly dangerous- the majority of their clients were rich celebrities that needed a bodyguard for the night, but every now and then they had a major political figure to protect or the odd ex-mafia boss, which put Clint directly in the firing line. He never used to worry about that kind of thing before, but now with a kid on the way and Natasha starting a new stage in her life, he couldn’t help but think about the what-ifs.

After about 15 minutes of tossing and turning Laura had evidently had enough, as demonstrated by the pillow that she used to knock him over the head.

_What was that for?_ He signed, attempting to put as much shock into his signing as possible.

_I can’t kick the baby out for tossing and turning but I can definitely kick you out for it._

_You’re seriously gonna kick me out of bed tonight._

_Yes._ Clint gave her his best puppy dog eyes, which admittedly weren’t that effective in the dark. _Baby trumps interview._

“Baby trumps everything apparently.” Clint sighed as he climbed out of bed and shuffled down the hall to Natasha’s room. She’d kill him if she found out he slept in her bed but honestly, that couch was far too lumpy for anyone to sleep on and frankly he needed to get at least a few hours in before tomorrow. Laura wasn’t wrong about the effects of excess coffee on a sleep-deprived Clint- not good for any party involved.

Admittedly, he may have gone a little overboard with the breakfast. But after a few hours of tossing and turning he’d gotten out of bed at 5am and had drained two entire pots of coffee since. He needed to release all his pent-up energy somehow, hence the breakfast spread big enough to feed the 5,000 complete with all of Laura’s- and out of habit Natasha’s- favourite breakfast treats. Omelettes, scones, croissants, pancakes, waffles, fresh fruit, the works.

“You have got to be kidding me.”

“In my defence, I made everything that you like.”

“Since when did I like cheese scones?” Laura asked as she pulled one of the scones apart before dumping it back onto the dish.

“Those were for Nat. I know she’s not here but…” he shrugged as he plated up the bacon. “Old habits and all that.”

Laura sighed as she started to pile up a plate of food. “Clint it’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, but what if it’s not? What if I don’t get it?”

“Then we’ll carry on as we are and you’ll try again another time.” Laura took the frying pan and spatula out of his hands and placed them on the stovetop. She turned his body towards her and placed one of his hands over her stomach. He looked at her confused at first but then he felt it, the little kick that she’d been able to feel for a few months now that he’d always been so jealous of. A full-tooth grin overtook his face as he placed his other hand over her stomach to get another feel. Laura snaked her arms around his waist and pulled him in for a hug. “It’ll be fine.”

“Okay.” He whispered and kissed her hair.

“But not if you don’t shower and get dressed.” She playfully smacked his ass as he headed towards the stairs. “They’d be foolish not to promote that ass.”

“Not part of the job requirement babe, but I appreciate the support.” His phone chimed as a text came through from Natasha: _Good luck bird brain! And calm down, I can feel you freaking out from over here._

“It was fucking awful!” Clint collapsed down onto the couch, loosened his tie, kicked off his shoes and put his feet up on the coffee table where he was pretty sure he'd remain for the forseeable future. “A monkey could’ve done a better interview.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t that bad.”

“They asked me what my biggest weakness was; I said being deaf.” He heard Laura’s loud snort from the kitchen, the same reaction he was hoping to get from his interviewers but his joke had fallen flat with them. “Then they ask me to name something I was bad at; I said hearing and interviews.”

“Maybe they saw the funny side of that.” Laura handed him a beer and crashed on the couch next to him with her own beverage. “Non-alcoholic.” She said when Clint gave her a horrified look. “Is it bad to say that I miss alcohol?”

“Bad? No. Mildly worrying? Yes.” He flopped his head back and groaned. “What are we gonna do? We’re barely getting by as it is and babies are hella expensive.” 

“We’ve survived on a lot less than we have now.” And boy was that true. Sometimes he wondered how they managed life before he was promoted from doorman security gigs to private security- lots of charity and handouts were probably to thank. “Besides, Natasha’s hardly financially dependent on us anymore and we can just put this one to work as soon as they’re able to walk.” Clint snorted despite himself and kissed his wife on the cheek. “I’m sure lots of places are dying to get their hands on some good ole fashioned child labour.”

“That’s sick, you know that right?” Laura just shrugged and sipped at her non-alcoholic beer. His phone buzzed with an incoming text from Natasha. Clint groaned again. “What should I say? I can’t let her down too.”

“Tell her the truth,” Laura stated matter-of-factly. “Tell her you don’t know yet and that we may need to sell the house and move into her dorm room.” 

“I know you’re joking, but that’s not a terrible idea.”

“We’ll make do with what we got. We always do.”

“But that’s the problem, Laura. I’m sick of just having to make do with what we’ve got. Which aside from this house, is jack shit!” Clint discarded his beer bottle on the coffee table and ran both hands through his hair. “You and Nat deserve so much more. And lord knows we could all use a break.”

“You deserve more too.” Laura reached her hand up to rub the back of his neck, relieving some of the pressure there. “But until life deals us that break, we’re just gonna have to make do.”

His phone buzzed again with an incoming call. He checked the caller ID and sighed. “Finally gonna tell me that I haven’t go it.” Laura kissed him on the forehead before she got up and gave him a little privacy, which he was immensely grateful for, he didn’t want to have to get rejected in front of his wife. “Hello… Well, what else was I supposed to say? It is a weakness, isn’t it?... I know, just tell me already so I can get started on drowning my sorrows and selling the car…” Clint readjusted the dial on his hearing aide, there’s no way he heard that correctly. “No shit, for real? Well, thank you very much, sir. I’ll see you Monday.” He hung up the phone and just stared at it in disbelief.

“So should I tell Nat to clear space for a crib?” Laura asked as she re-entered the room.

“I got it.”

“What did I tell you? It would be a crime not to promote that ass.”

“I think it was my experience with the company that did it, but thanks anyway.” Clint raised his beer bottle in a toast. “to not having move into a college dorm.”

“To life finally throwing us a break,” Laura said as she raised her own bottle.

He shot Natasha a quick text about the promotion and she responded instantly with a picture of her on the college campus holding up a can of beer in cheers. In the background there was a guy with glasses and dark curly hair, holding up both thumbs and sporting an uncertain grin as though Natasha had told him to hold the pose and he’d just gone along with it not really knowing why. She’d captioned it with: _We’re celebrating for you!_ With a few drinks emojis and a thumbs up.

“Who’s that?” Clint tilted the screen towards Laura and pointed to the unknown male in the background.

“Leave her alone. It’s probably just a friend of hers.”

“You said that about Matt and look what happened there.”

“Clint, she’s a big girl and she’s allowed to have friends of the opposite sex.” Laura snatched his phone from his hand before he could inquire more about the mystery guy. “The guy looks like he's more likely to get her into a Star Trek convention than into trouble. Now get your coat on, we’re celebrating.”


	4. Woes of a little Russian girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We take some time away from the main story to look at Natasha's past and find our how this complex character came to be this way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reference to multiple character deaths, child abuse and bullying.

**3 years old**

Natasha loves it when her mama tucks her in at night. Papa reads the stories better, especially when he does the different voices, but momma always sings a song and Natasha loves her mama’s singing the best.

She could usually coax her mama into singing another song before she drifts off but tonight it doesn’t seem to work, even when Natasha pulls the sad face that never fails with her papa.

" _You need to sleep now, baby. We have a big day tomorrow.”_ Her mama said as she tucked her fluffy bunny under her arm.

_"I don’t wanna go, mama.”_ Natasha hugged her bunny tighter. _“Why can’t we stay here?”_

" _Because your papa has a new job; a better job.”_ Her mama smoothed her red curly hair back away from her face using her thumb to wipe away one of the tears that had fallen down little Natasha’s cheek. _“Our life will be better in America.”_

_"But our life is fine here!”_

_"Shh sleep now, Natalia.”_ Her mama kissed her forehead and pulled the duvet to tuck under Natasha’s chin. _“You will understand when you’re older.”_

**5 years old**

Natasha remembers when her babushka died. It was a few weeks after her third birthday when her babushka gave her her fluffy bunny; which now goes everywhere with her, her mama and papa sat her down and told her that babushka had gone to a better place and wouldn’t be coming back. They told her that sometimes when people get really old they get sick and sometimes their too sick to come and see her anymore. And babushka was _really_ old and _really_ sick.

But what Natasha couldn’t understand was why this man in the black suit was telling her that her mama and papa had gone to a better place and weren’t coming back to see her. They weren’t old (even if papa was getting those funny lines on his head that old people get) and they weren’t sick so it didn’t make any sense.

Natasha still didn’t understand, even when the girl from next door that usually takes care of her when her mama and papa couldn’t held her hand at the funeral and took her to place a flower on their gravestones- that part really didn’t make sense. They said that her mama and papa were in a better place but they also said that the gravestones marked where her mama and papa were. How could the ground be a better place? It was dirty and full of bugs and mama always told her off if she played in it.

So why would they go there and leave Natasha here? In this big house filled with older girls that pick on her and adults that hit her. She had cried the first time. Cried harder the second. The third time she had decided to hit back and that was one of the biggest mistakes she could’ve ever made. That was the first time she ever got sent to the red room- the small room under the stairs. There was no light or window, the only light in the room came from the little slither at the bottom of the door. But when it was night-time and all the lights in the building were off, the room was plunged into complete darkness.

Natasha hated the dark, she hated small spaces worse, but after a few trips to the red room, she started to not mind it so bad. At least in the red room, bad things couldn’t happen to her. The dark was as bad as it could get. Sure there was no telling what may happen when they finally let her out, but so long as she was in there no one was trying to hurt her. So the time in the red room became her sanctuary where she would remember the songs her mama used to sing to her or the sounds of the voices her papa used to use when he was reading her a story. And when they finally let her out, she would look forward to her next trip to the red room.

**6 years old**

She was six when she first met Clint. Some of the older girls had her cornered and they were threatening her fluffy bunny with a pair of scissors. It was the only thing she had connecting her back to her life in Russia before things went so terribly wrong.

That was why she couldn’t fight the tears as she pled with the older girls not to destroy it. Though her pleading and her tears were wasted as they proceed to decapitate the toy.

Natasha lurched forward to get at the main girl in the group but she was pushed back to the ground as two of the girls held her arms. The main girl of the group grabbed one of her red plaits and held the scissors to it threatening to cut it off. She struggled against the grip that the girls had on her but it was no use, the girls were far stronger than her.

Just as the girl was about to cut it off a small stone flung across the room, hitting the girls hand, causing the girl to drop the scissors.

All attention went towards the door where a scrawny boy with dirty blonde hair and piercing blue eyes stood with a slingshot loaded with another small stone.

“Let her go.” The boy said with a voice that commanded absolute authority. The girls didn’t move and the boy launched another stone, this one hitting the girl’s foot. “The next one won’t miss.” He said as he loaded up another stone and aimed it at the girl. The two girls holding Natasha let go and pulled the main girl back to leave the room, giving dirty looks to both Natasha and the boy as they left. The boy offered Natasha a hand to help her off the floor.

“Thank you,” Natasha said in a small voice, wiping away the rest of her tears.

“You know I might not be here the next time they pick on you. You might wanna learn to stick up for yourself.”

“They pick on me cos I’m small.”

“Yeah, you really are.” He eyed her small frame. “How old are ya kid?”

“6”

“First grader?”

Natasha shook her head. “I was supposed to start last year but… but then my parents…”

“Yeah, that sucks.” The boy placed a hand on her shoulder in comfort. “But a small kid like you, you’re definitely gonna wanna learn to protect yourself before you start school.”

Natasha looked up at the boy. “But how? I’m too small.”

“Nah, don’t worry kiddo.” The boy said as he put an arm around her shoulders. “I’ll teach ya.”

**9 years old**

She liked Phil and Melinda, they take her out to nice places every other Saturday; sometimes it’s to the park where she gets to play on the swings, sometimes they take her for ice-cream and let her pick all the toppings she wants- strawberries and chocolate syrup is her favourite combination.

Today they took her to the cinema and then for ice-cream afterwards, they told her that today is a special day but they say she can’t know why until they get back to the home. She doesn’t dwell on it though, for now, she simply enjoys her vanilla ice-cream with strawberries and chocolate. She feels bad that Clint doesn’t get to come with them, but he says that he’s happy she gets to go out with nice people and sometimes Phil and Melinda let her take treats back for him.

On the drive back to the home Melinda asks her all sorts of weird questions, like what colour would she want to paint her room if she ever had her own one. She doesn’t really understand why they asked her such questions, not until they get back to the home and they sit her down in the office with Angela (the woman in charge of the home) and tell her that they want to adopt her. As in take her away from this home forever; take her away from Clint.

They can’t do that. They can’t take her away from the one person that’s been there for her throughout the hell that had been these past 5 years. If Clint was here he’d stop them, he wouldn’t let this happen, wouldn’t let them take her.

Natasha knocked her chair over as she made a break for it, heard Angela ask why Phil and Melinda wouldn’t want one of the nicer girls. That’d be better for everyone, sure she would miss getting to spend time with Phil and Melinda but she wouldn’t have to be separated from Clint and there’d be one less girl in the home to pick on her.

She ran into Clint in the hall as she made her escape and engulfed him in a hug so tight his voice sounded strained when he asked her what’s wrong.

“They’re gonna take me, Clint.” She said through the tears and gasps for breath. “They’re never gonna let me see you again.”

“Woah Nat calm down! What are you talking about?” Natasha’s tears were too much and she was barely able to get her words out now. Clint held her close and soothed her until her tears subsided. “Okay, you gonna tell me what’s going on?”

“Phil and Melinda-“

Clint’s eyes went wide as he assumed the worst. “What did they do? Did they hit you? I swear to god I’ll kill ‘em!”

“They want to adopt me!” Natasha said as though it was the worst possible thing they could do.

Clint chuckled as he tilted Natasha’s head up so that she’s looking directly at him. “Nat, that’s the dream isn’t it?” He wiped away her last tear with the pad of his thumb and it’s so reminiscent of what her mother used to do that she almost started crying again. “You always tell me how great Phil and Melinda are. Don’t you want them to take you out of this shithole?” Natasha’s nod was reluctant but that didn’t make it any less sure; finally getting away from the home was all she’d dreamed about since she got here, she just always imagined it’d be _with_ Clint not without him. “So what’s the problem then kiddo?”

“I’m not gonna get to see you again.”

“Are you kidding me? They couldn’t stop me from seeing you if they tried.” The absolute certainty he spoke with left no room for protest. “Now, you ready to go back to the lovely couple that wants to take you away from this crap” With one last sniffle and a nod Clint led Natasha back to the office where Phil, Melinda, and Angela were still recovering from her outburst. “Sorry about that, Nat just got a little scared is all. I think she’d really like to go home with you two, right kiddo?”

“Are you sure Natasha?” Phil asked as he crouched down so that he was eye level with her. “Is that what you really want?”

Natasha turned back to Clint as new tears welled in her eyes. Clint crouched down so that he and Natasha were the same height, she was still pretty small for her age and Clint was right in the middle of a growth spurt which had resulted in him towering over her.

“Hey now kiddo, it’s gonna be fine.” Clint wrapped his arms around Natasha as she lightly sobbed on his shoulder. “I’ll make sure I come to see you all the time.”

“Natasha,” a soft hand rested on her shoulder where Melinda had joined their crouched circle. “would you feel better if Clint came with us too?”

Natasha looked up at Melinda, eyes puffy and bloodshot as she nodded; Clint going with them would be perfect. They'd both get out of the home and they'd get to stick together.

“You guys really don’t have to-“

“We’d be happy to have you, Clint.” 

It took a little longer to arrange; Phil and Melinda had to convert their attic into a bedroom for Clint and make sure that the rest of the house is suitable for two children instead of one, but they were moved in within a month and within two months memories of the home and the staff and the older girls were long forgotten.

**10 years old**

Natasha was pretty used to death by now. She understood that when they said ‘someone was off to a better place’ it meant that they were gone and were never coming back. The priest at the funeral had said something about an afterlife and god wanting an angel back but Natasha thought that was all nonsense. Why would a god take away the angels if there were so few here on earth that were looking out for them? That just didn’t make sense, not to her anyway. But it seemed to be helping Phil get through this so she figured she could pretend to believe it for him.

They hadn’t really expected this. Well, to be honest, Natasha hadn’t really expected the death of anyone she’d lost over the years, they all sort of just happened. But Melinda had been fine and healthy one minute and then the next she was given six more weeks to live due to a tumour growing on her brain- she’d only lived for half of that. Clint had said it was something called cancer, she didn’t really know much about it but Clint had said it was a bitch and given that it had taken Melinda away, Natasha was inclined to believe he was right.

Phil hadn’t taken any of it well, he’d stayed strong when Melinda could see, but Natasha often found him crying in his office late at night. That was where she found him now, still in his funeral suit, crying into his hands.

Natasha was sure to knock before she entered his office. She’d gotten in trouble the first time she walked in- one of the few times Phil had ever told her off- something about his job which he wasn’t allowed to tell them about but he had stuff in his office that no one was allowed to see. Natasha was pretty sure he was a spy but Clint said it was secret service for the President. Either way, Natasha knew not to enter the office without knocking.

Phil looked up at her with bloodshot eyes, cheeks puffy from his long stint of crying. Yet still, when he saw her he dried his eyes and gave her his best attempt at a smile in these times. “Hey, Natasha.” His voice wavered slightly and he cleared his throat to try again. “How are you holding up?”

Natasha slipped into the seat on the other side of his desk, a recent addition since she and Clint came to the house. One of them would often wind up in here to talk to Phil about some kind of issue, to get help with homework when Melinda couldn’t help them or to simply talk about their day. She liked talking to Phil, it was one her favourite things since they moved in, Phil was a really good listener and always wanted to know about what the two of them had on. Between the chats with Phil and Melinda’s cooking, she was really starting to feel at home here. Which was why she was really going to miss it.

Natasha wiped her tear-stained cheeks and took a deep breath. “I don’t want to go back to the home.”

“What?” Phil’s face crumpled in confusion.

“The older girls didn't pick on me as much when Clint came but he can't stop the adults… and I really don’t want to go back.”

“What makes you think you’re gonna go back?”

“Because you and Melinda adopted us together and now that she’s gone…” She sniffled and wiped back a fresh tear. “Please don’t make us go back.”

Phil’s face softened as he rounded the desk and crouched down in front of her. “Hey, look at me.” He coaxed her chin up so that she was looking into his blue eyes. “You will never have to go back to that house again, okay.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

Phil’s arms wrapped around her in a tight hug. It was unusual for him to hug her, neither of them really sure how to navigate the boundaries of this new relationship. But the significance of moment cut through any of the awkwardness that came with this new quasi father-daughter relationship and Natasha found herself trusting Phil completely. He’ll never allow her to go back to the home.

**14 years old**

Natasha had waited for an hour before she decided that Phil must’ve forgotten that he was supposed to pick her up. Which was very much unlike him because in the past 5 years Phil had never once forgotten to pick her up from ballet rehearsal, nor had he ever been late for that matter. In fact, Phil always got there 30 minutes early to watch the end of rehearsals.

But today he was an hour late and there was no text to tell her that he wouldn’t be able to make it, he wasn’t even answering his phone. The rain was coming down heavy and the walk was too far to endure in this kind of weather, and she didn’t have any cash for the subway. Clint was her best option if she wanted to get home dry. She shot Clint a quick text and settled in for the wait.

Clint pulled up 30 minutes later in his beat-up Jeep Wrangler with Laura beside him in the passenger seat.

“Hey kiddo, where’s Phil?”

Natasha shrugged as she climbed into the back seat. “He’s not answering his phone.”

“He probably just got caught up at work.” Clint didn’t sound as though he believed it himself and she could hear the undertones of worry in his voice. Neither of them knew what Phil did but they knew that he was never late for anything, he was always back home by 7 and he was never late to pick her up from practice; if he said he was going to be somewhere and at certain time, he was.

“How were rehearsals, baby?” Laura asked, evidently not picking up on the worry the two of them were feeling.

Natasha liked Laura, she was perky and funny and didn’t seem to have a mean bone in her body. She also seemed just as goofy as Clint at times and Natasha had taken an almost instant liking to her when Clint brought her home 3 years ago.

“Yeah, it was good. We’ve got our performance in a few weeks so just trying to get ready for that.” They spotted the blue flashing lights of two police vehicles as they turned onto their street. “Shit Clint, what did you do?”

“ _Me_? I’ve been good. I swear.” Clint pulled into the driveway to see two police officers stood at their door, Clint’s face dropped where he’d evidently clocked on to something that she was missing. “Natasha stay in the car.” Natasha ignored him and climbed out as soon as he stopped the engine. “Dammit Nat, I said stay in the car!” he yelled, but she carried on ignoring him, determined to find out what was happening.

“What’s going on?” She asked the two police officers.

“We’re looking for the relatives of Phil Coulson.”

“Yeah, he’s our dad” Clint answered as he stood next to her. “adoptive dad, or whatever. What’s this about?”

“Maybe we should go inside.” One of the officers said.

Natasha didn’t hear what was said next, didn’t need to. She’d done this before; she knew how it went, knew exactly what comes next.

“He’s dead. Isn’t he?” She interrupted one of the officers who was starting his spiel which would inevitably lead to that conclusion.

“I’m very sorry for your loss-“

Natasha didn’t hang around for the rest. She’d had enough of people telling her that they’re sorry for her loss. That they understood that this was hard. They didn’t have a fucking clue. Natasha had lost every bit of family she ever had. First her babushka, then her parents, then Melinda and now Phil. And she wasn’t waiting to hear anyone tell her that he’d gone to a better place or any bullshit about heaven needing another angel. That was all bullshit and this was just the universe being an absolute dick to her once again, just when things were starting to feel okay.

She should’ve known it was too good to be true. That her playing happy families with Phil and Clint was only going to last so long before it all got fucked up again. Of course, it wouldn’t last. There was no happy ending for her. She didn’t get a happy functional family. All she got was Clint, and at this moment she felt like she should be grateful for the universe giving her that much; especially given she didn’t know when it would take him away from her.

She didn’t allow herself to cry until she got to his office where she collapsed onto his chair and broke down. God, she fucking hated the universe.

**17 years old**

She hated her new school- the teachers were stuck up; the kids were dicks, and the classes were boring. Plus this school didn’t have Bucky, who was one of the few redeeming factors of her old school.

Laura and Clint had said she’d been lucky to be accepted into the school, it was apparently one of the best in their district and they usually required a generous donation to accept students. She knew for sure that they hadn’t given any form of donation, they barely had enough money to get by as it was, they were pretty lucky to have a roof over their heads at the moment. They couldn’t afford to keep up the payments on Phil’s house and would’ve very easily wound up on the street if they hadn’t moved out of the city. Of course, Natasha understood the logistics of it all, Clint got paid next to nothing with his security job despite all the extra shifts that he picked up and until Laura could land a permanent job as a nursery teacher, her supply work just wasn’t a stable enough income. She perfectly understood why they had to move away, she just thought it still sucked despite the reasoning.

She liked Matt though. Matt was cool, he didn’t look down on her, wasn’t afraid to break the rules and was a bit of a daredevil- no matter the dare Matt wouldn’t back down. Like when she dared Matt to put laxatives in the coffee machine in the staff lounge or to steal a bottle of vodka from the liquor store on the corner next to their school. He didn’t back down from any of it, even if he knew the chances of him getting caught were high.

She didn’t back down from his dares either. When Matt dared her to bunk off from school with him she was always up for it. And when he dared her to kiss him well, she'd been wanting to do that for a while anyway so that was an easy one.

They never got busted for any of it. Matt was the son of a wealthy congressman and no one was gonna tell off the troubled teenager who'd suffered through an innumerable amount of family grievances and lived with her struggling older brother and his girlfriend. The two of them pretty much got a free ride on their mischief for most of high school. That was until one day they’d apparently taken it too far and some of the parents complained- likely Matt’s parents given that he hadn’t been called in front of the principle.

Matt had dared her to hack into the school website- which was pretty simple given that the school had a pretty basic firewall and she’d been capable of hacking into far more advanced sites years ago- and change the default to Russian, she, of course, decided to go one step further and change all the Principle's email default to Russian too. It was an obvious tell who the culprit would be but not a serious enough offence that would require calling Clint in for a chat with the principle. Hence making it quite clear that a complaint had been made about their other activities.

Clint had been fuming when he got the call asking him to come into the school. It meant he couldn’t go into work and given that it was supposed to be his first day in his new role in the private security sector, his boss was not happy and neither was Clint. Which was evident by the look on his face and the fact that he hadn’t said a word to her since the school called him.

They’d driven to the school in tense silence and remained that way even now as they sat outside the Principle’s office.

“Mr Barton, Miss Romanoff, the principle will see you now.” The principles secretary said, not bothering to look up from her computer to speak to them. Natasha hated her. She was another one that looked down on them, as though they had no right to breathe the same air as her and the people at this school.

“Mr Barton.” Principle Jefferson offered Clint a firm handshake as they entered. “I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.”

“So do I, Mr Jefferson.” The tension was clear in Clint's voice. “I’m really sorry about the website sir. I had her change it back immediately-“

“That’s not why I called you in today Mr Barton. We got an anonymous tipoff yesterday.” The principle started to unload several items onto his desk; cigarettes, vodka bottles and quite a few fake IDs. “we found these in Natasha’s locker.”

“Seriously Nat, cigarettes?”

“This anonymous tipoff wouldn’t go by the name of Mr Murdock would he?” Natasha asked, ignoring Clint and his disapproving look.

“Mr Murdock is concerned about his son's education and the impact you may be having on it.” Principle Jefferson cleared his throat before he continued on. “We’ve allowed Natasha a fair amount of concessions for her disruptive behaviour over the years, however when her behaviours are impacting the potential of another student- a promising student I might add- then we can no longer tolerate it.”

“And what about the impact that this Matt kid is having on Natasha’s education?”

“We are aware that the two have been a negative impact on each other. However, Mr Murdock's parents are very generous donors to the school-“

“So that’s what this all comes down to? Natasha takes the fall because we're poor?” Clint stood in fury and Mr Jefferson attempted to ease him back down.

“That’s not what I’m saying, Mr Barton. The school relies on the donations of the Murdocks and so the school must take some disciplinary action towards Natasha.” Clint opened his mouth to argue again but was silenced by the raised hand of principle Jefferson. “hence why we are giving Natasha a formal warning and a two-week suspension.”

“How is taking her out of classes going to do her any good?”

“It will show the Murdocks that we are taking action. It’s not the best solution but it’s better than what the Murdocks want which is for Natasha to be permanently suspended.” Of course, they would, Matt’s parents had never liked the idea of him dating someone below their social status and nothing more would please them than to see her kicked out of the school. “but we're reluctant to do that.” The principal turned to look at her, acknowledging her for the first time since she entered the room. “You’re a bright kid Natasha. You could get into any college that you applied for.”

Natasha let out a snort of laughter. “with what money?”

“There are scholarships available. I would have no hesitation writing you a positive reference.” The principle slid over a few college prospectuses for her. “You have lots of potential and we would hate to see that go to waste.”

Natasha just stared at them, making no move to pick them up.

“Thank you, Mr Jefferson.” Clint said as he gathered to prospectuses. “we’ll take a look at these.”

Principle Jefferson nodded and extended his hand out to Clint as he stood. “This school only has a one-strike policy. If there is another incident I will have to permanently exclude Natasha.”

“There won’t be another one. You have my word.” Clint ushered her towards the door and out into the parking lot. Just like the drive to the school the drive home was silent, though Natasha could see the tension in Clint’s grip on the steering wheel and the set of his jaw, but he didn’t say anything, not until they pulled up outside the house. “What the hell is your problem Nat?”

“What’re you-“

“Laura and I are working our asses off to keep our heads above water and you’re just pissing everything away like nothing even matters.” Clint finally turned to look at her, though with the look on his face she was starting to wish he hadn’t. “D’you know Laura took up a cleaning job at that school just to get you in there. And this is the thanks we get.”

“Well I didn’t ask you guys-”

“No, but we did!” Clint actually raised his voice and that managed to shock some of the nonchalance out of her. Clint rarely raised his voice at her, mainly because it usually resulted in her raising her own back. “because we actually care and want to see you make something of yourself. What would Phil say if he could see you wasting your life away.”

“Well, he’s not exactly here to say anything is he.” Natasha bit back and instantly regretted her words.

“No, he’s not. And thank fuck for that.” Clint took the key out of the ignition and opened the driver’s door. “For once I can truly say I’m glad he’s not here so he doesn’t have to see you fuck everything up for yourself.” Clint slammed the door shut as he left. Leaving her in the car alone with the tense silence, those words and a bunch of college prospectuses. The truth in those words had stung the most. She’d never thought about how much she'd been disappointing Phil, let alone Clint and Laura. She really had gone and fucked things up.

**19 years old**

Natasha stared at the letter on the table but she couldn’t bear to open it. Not when she knew how much was riding on the contents of that letter.

She'd never realised how much she wanted to go to college until that day she got suspended from school for 2 weeks. She and Clint had had the worst argument they’d ever had which led to her feeling shitty enough to actually take the advice of Principle Jefferson. She’d spent that entire night looking at colleges and the scholarships they offered, as well as their courses. She knew she wanted to do something with coding, she was good at that and technology was the future right? But finding the right scholarship that she could qualify for was the hard part. That was when she stumbled upon MCU's website- they had the best computer science course in the country but the tuition fees had made her skip over it, there was no way they could afford that. But then she found the scholarships they offered and most importantly the ballet scholarship.

The requirements for acceptance into the college were easy enough to obtain and she found out she'd gotten into MCU over a week ago when her results came out. But what she was waiting on was news about the scholarship. Without it, she could kiss her hopes of going to college goodbye. She’d done the audition a while back and had to send in clips from her past performances and now the envelope that sat in front of her contained the results of all her hard work.

“No matter what it says we're proud and we'll work something out,” Laura said as she placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and a steaming cup of coffee beside her. “We’ll sell the house if we have to.”

“You can’t sell the house when you've got a baby on the way,” Natasha said with a roll of her eyes. “I don’t think I can do it.”

“D’you want me to?” Natasha nodded and handed the envelop over to Clint. “just remember that we're proud of you kiddo.”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Just hurry up already.” It felt like it took forever for Clint to open the envelope and read the letter but the large grin on his face gave away the contents. “I got it?”

“You got it.”

“Our baby’s going to college” Laura exclaimed as she wrapped Natasha in a tight hug.

“We knew you could do it kiddo! The Bolshoi's got nothing on you.”

“The Bolshoi is one of the foremost ballet companies in the world Clint.“ Natasha rolled her eyes. “I've got nothing on them.”

“I meant what I said! We should celebrate.”

“Yeah, just let me call Matt first.” Natasha ignored the grumbles of Clint about Matt and carried on up the stairs, dialling Matt's number as she went, but the number was disconnected. Which was weird because Matt had had the same number since they first met and would’ve told her if he was changing it. She tried to message him through Facebook but when she searched his name on her friends list nothing came up. She did a general search for his name and found his profile, so he hadn’t deleted his account, but they didn’t seem to be friends anymore.

Her paranoia began to kick in. She knew she shouldn’t do it- getting caught hacking into your new college's website was not a good way to start the academic year and a sure way to get your scholarship revoked- but she had to check. What if he didn’t get in and was just too embarrassed to tell her. Worst case scenario she could easily enrol him herself; though that would be a last resort. She hacked into the list of incoming students, skipping all the way down to M and didn’t see Matt's name anywhere. The only explanation she could think was that he was too ashamed to tell her that he hadn’t been accepted. They’d both planned to go to MCU together, her to major in computer science, him to major in law. They’d planned on becoming a college power couple, taking on the world together. So to not get in would really be a bump in their road. But he had to know that she wouldn’t really care, wouldn’t leave him just because they were at different colleges.

She sent him a quick message on Facebook and a friend request and went back downstairs to the calls of Laura and Clint- who had popped open a cheap bottle of champagne.

“Well, what did Matt say,” Laura asked eagerly as she handed her a glass of the bubbly alcohol.

Natasha just shrugged. “His phone's going to voicemail. He must be celebrating with his parents or something.”

“Ah well, he’s not important anyway.” Clint raised his glass in a toast, Natasha following suit and Laura doing the same with her glass of OJ. “Here’s to you kid.”

It wasn’t until 2 weeks later that Natasha saw the photos. Matt hadn’t accepted her friend request and her message had been left on read. She checked the MCU site again and still didn’t find his name. It was when she checked his Facebook profile that she saw the picture of him standing in front of the Stanford University sign with Elektra Natchios stood beside him, curled around his arm. The next photo made her blood boil; Elektra had turned to kiss Matt on the cheek. It was the final photo that had tipped her over. The one where Matt had turned to kiss Elektra on the lips.

He’d ditched her for Elektra and Stanford, and didn’t even have the decency to break up with her. Not even a text message. Clint wasn’t wrong when he said that Matt was bad news. And she sure as hell wouldn’t make this mistake again.


	5. All Hallow's Eve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Halloween in this fic.  
> \- Maria attempts to set out a definition of her and Bucky's 'relationship', and the two of them add in a new facet.  
> \- Steve's struggling with his feelings only now there's a new player added to the mix. Could he be over Bucky already?  
> \- Thor takes a shot at playing Cupid, but he leaves his own love life in tatters.  
> \- Sam has some serious game and Natasha is picking up everything he's laying down.  
> \- Bruce gets seriously friendzoned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Contains some strong language and adult themes.
> 
> Sorry that it's taken a while to update this one but hopefully this longish chapter makes up for that. 
> 
> Also just in case anyone hasn't quite been able to follow what I'm trying to do with the writing format- I'm showing various events from multiple characters pov. Sometimes it may be the same event and I'll try my best to avoid repetitive content. Sometimes it may be different events that overlap or take place around the same time. I'm trying my best to make that clear but if you do get lost or confused along the way then do let me know.
> 
> A different character's pov is signified by the chapter break "~*~" and if it's the same character but a different point in the story it's signified by a large gap.

“I dunno, I mean aren’t we a little old for the whole dress-up thing?” Bucky asked as he held a sausage skewered on a fork at the precipice of his mouth, his other arm draped across the back of her chair in a slightly possessive gesture. It was one of the few actions Maria allowed as she continued to draw out the parameters of their non-relationship relationship. “I haven’t worn a costume since like what, 6th grade.”

“When you came to school dressed as a pirate?” Natasha teased.

“Yeah, you teased me relentlessly. Called me Popeye for a whole year and I’ve never dressed up since.”

“Wasn’t Popeye a sailor?” Maria asked as she tried to recall vague memories of the cartoon.

Natasha shrugged. “There’s no logic to a child’s teasing.” She tried to snatch the last bit of bacon from Steve’s plate, who swatted away her advancing hand only to allow her thievery when she tried the second time. “plus I managed to get the whole school to join in too.” She said with a grin as she crunched down on the spoils of her theft.

“You two had a strange friendship dynamic,” Steve added, which was a fair enough observation. From the stories the two of them told, it seemed Bucky and Natasha’s friendship was built on 3 themes: getting each other into mischief; backing the other up in a fight or argument, despite whether the other was right or not; ruthlessly picking on each other. Though that last one was mainly Natasha ruthlessly picking on Bucky.

“You say _had_ as though she doesn’t do the same thing now. She’s already got everyone calling me Bucky instead of my actual name.”

“Right but back to the point.” Maria doctored another coffee with one sugar and two creamers before continuing. “Our choices at the moment are between the Halloween mixer or this costume party, neither of which are grasping my attention.”

“Friends,” Thor’s bellowing voice interrupted their conversation as the giant blonde walked past with a mountain of scrambled eggs topped with endless strips of bacon- damn could that guy eat. Though she figured he’d have to consume a fair few calories each day to maintain that kind of muscle mass. Bucky ate a surprising amount of food each day and he was only half the size of Thor. “I couldn’t help but overhear your discussion about your Halloween plans.”

“Please tell us you know of a decent party that’s happening.” Natasha pleaded.

“Indeed. This costume party that you speak of,” Thor placed his mountain of food down on their table and sat in between Natasha and Bucky at the head of the table, as though holding court over the group. “It is being hosted by one of my good friends on the football team. It is usually a very enjoyable affair. I would encourage you all to come.”

“Will there be free booze like last time?” Bucky’s question was answered with an egg-filled grin and a nod as Thor began to shovel food down his throat at an impressive rate. “He didn’t let us down with the last party. We all seemed to have fun at that.”

“Some more than others,” Maria said with a sly smirk sent Natasha’s way. She’d heard all about the redhead’s complaints about the basketball player’s less than impressive bedroom display.

“That’s an understatement,” Natasha replied with a roll of her eyes.

“It is decided then. I hope to see you all in your best costumes for the night.”

“Are the costumes mandatory?”

“Why, can’t think of a good matching costume idea for you and Bucky?” Natasha teased, evidently satisfied to now get payback for Maria’s earlier comment.

“Ah yes! My dear Jane and I will be joining our costume efforts. It would be truly spectacular to see another couple do the same.”

“Uh yeah, maybe,” Maria said awkwardly, willing the subject away.

Luckily the topic of their matching costumes was dropped fairly quickly and not brought up again. Not until that night at least, whilst she was enjoying the bliss of comedown and Bucky, evidently delirious from orgasm, had asked her about it.

“Bucky, we’re not wearing matching costumes.”

“Why not?” he sat up to look at her head-on and she smacked a hand over her face with a sigh.

“Because we’re not a couple.” She really didn’t think she’d have to spell this out to him. “and matching Halloween costumes is something that couples do.”

“So what are we then?”

She really wished he hadn’t picked now to bring this up. She was having a really good evening up until now. To everyone else they were just a standard couple going through the early stages of a new relationship; awkwardly unaffectionate in public and distinctly not answering any questions about how they would define things between them. But to them, it was nothing like that. They simply got along socially and had quite a bit of sexual chemistry that they were exploiting. Or at least that’s how she saw it. Bucky, on the other hand, was clearly in need of some clarification on where they stood. “We’re two very attractive friends who have very good sex with each other.”

“Exclusively.”

“What?”

“We’re two very attractive friends who have very good sex with each other _exclusively_.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Then how are we not a couple?”

Maria sighed, rolled her eyes and sat up, covering herself with the sheets. “Bucky I thought we made this pretty clear before we started anything-“

“Oh yeah no we definitely did” Bucky reached into his drawer and pulled out a t-shirt for her and a pair of boxers for him. “But I don’t get why we’re only exclusively having sex with each other.”

“Are you saying you want to start sleeping with other people?”

“Hypothetically, if I meet another very attractive person tomorrow that I wanted to have great sex with, would you be okay with that?”

Maria thought about it for a while. Bucky was great, not just because he was attractive and great in bed but he was also a pretty sweet and funny guy, but she was in no way intending to start a relationship with him or anyone else for that matter. She just didn’t see the point in entering a long-term commitment at this age. So in that respect, it made sense to eradicate the ‘exclusivity’ of their activities. “Yeah.”

“ _yeah?_ ”

“Yeah. It makes sense.” Maria settled back down beside him. “If either of us goes to the party tomorrow and meets someone that takes our fancy, then go for it.”

“If not, then we have each other to fall back on.”

“I gotta say, you’re not a bad back up plan.”

“I know.” Maria pinched him in the side, a ticklish spot she had discovered pretty early on. “so is that a no on the matching costumes then?”

She pinched him again, eliciting the same muscle spasms as the first time. “Shut up and go to sleep.”

~*~

Steve had been stood in front of the mirror for about 15 minutes now, staring at himself in the camo trousers, khaki t-shirt and combat boots, the look completed with a dog tag around his neck. He’d never really dressed up for Halloween before- he was always too sickly as a kid to go out trick or treating in the late October weather and his mum was usually busy working to take him during the day when it wasn’t too cold out. The army gear was the best idea he could come up with, but now looking in the mirror, he couldn’t decide whether to go with it or not.

“Dude, you look fine. Smoking even, just go with that.” Steve blushed from head to toe at the compliment. He both loved and hated it when Bucky said things like that; it made him grin like an idiot whilst simultaneously reminding him that Bucky was the carrot on the end of the stick that he could never reach. “Or, just do what I’m doing and wear your soccer gear.”

“Bit of a cop-out isn’t it?” Bucky’s reflection shrugged. “So will Maria be going as a wag then?”

“Ha very funny. But wrong on multiple counts my ridiculously toned friend.” At this rate, Steve was pretty certain his tone was going to permanently take on a rosy red complexion. “One: seen as I’m not on the team-“

“I could do something about that.”

Bucky waved him off, still adamant that he didn’t need or want Steve to use his new leverage to get him on the team. “-I’m not a soccer player, and so Maria can’t be a wag. Two: Maria and I aren’t a couple so we won’t be wearing matching outfits.” Steve may have been inexperienced in the dating world, and by inexperienced he meant he had exactly 0 days’ worth of experience, but he was pretty sure that Bucky and Maria were a couple. They spent most nights together, leaving him to hang out with Tony or work out with Natasha, assuming the those two weren’t preoccupied with making other ‘ _friends_ ’. It seemed everyone but him was exploring their dating life. “and three: Maria and I have officially agreed that we’re not exclusive.”

“Which means?”

“Which means my good friend, I’m looking to score in more ways than one if you get what I mean.” Now isn’t that perfect? As if it wasn’t bad enough that he had to deal with knowing that Bucky was consistently sleeping with someone else, he now had to add to the fact that Bucky would potentially be sleeping with multiple people. Great. “Wanna be my wingman?”

What Steve wanted to say was: _“Are you kidding me? I can’t even work up the courage to tell you that I have these insane feelings for you, and you want_ me _to help set you up?”._ What Steve actually said, through gritted teeth was: “Sure.”

This was going to be yet another party that sucked for him, and all because of his ridiculous crush on his roommate.

The party wasn’t too bad. Admittedly it had started off pretty awkward, but once Natasha and Sam left with their intense sexual chemistry and Tony and his friend joined them, things started to get better. Tony’s friend was the complete opposite of him, well granted they were both geniuses but other than that they were polar opposites. Tony was loud and confident and boisterous whereas Bruce seemed reserved, self-conscious, and tame. That must be one interesting friendship that they have.

Tony also seemed just as hellbent at setting Bruce up with someone as he was with Steve, which did help to take the pressure off of him a little. Thor’s party where they first met was an intense night of Tony presenting Steve to every man and woman they came across, hoping that one of them would be his time. At least with Bruce there his attention was divided between them and more so focussed on Bruce. That was until Bruce slipped away and Tony had just Steve to focus on.

“Hey, have introduced you to my friend Steve?” Tony taped on the shoulder of a brunette woman with a petite frame despite being tall enough to tower over Maria and definitely Natasha.

“No, I don’t believe you have.” The woman responded with a distinctly British accent. “My name’s Peggy. Peggy Carter.”

“Steve.” He said dumbly. He didn’t notice her hand being held out towards him until Tony physically lifted his own and placed it in Peggy’s hand. Steve shook it on instinct but only managed to get that far as his brain froze. Just like when he first met Bucky, he was absolutely dumbstruck. It took him a few seconds to retract his hand and he awkwardly wiped his sweaty palm on his chest. “Sorry.” He huffed out self-consciously.

“Well it was lovely meeting you Steve but I’m heading off I’m afraid. Early class and all that.”

“Well funny that.” Tony gave him a heavy pat on the back, pushing him forward a step. “Steve here was just saying he had to get out of here.”

“I was?” He looked a Tony confused. Tony not so subtly angled his head towards Peggy, trying to signal to him to go along with it. “I mean, yeah I was.”

“Oh, well, in that case, you can walk with me then.”

“Yeah, I’d love to.” Tony gave him one last pat on the back before he disappeared off into the party. Leaving Steve to try and rack his brain for something to say to the gorgeous woman walking beside him. “Sorry about Tony.” Steve jabbed a thumb back towards the party. “He’s a little… out there.”

“That’s for sure." She said with a laugh and a shake of her head. "So, is the outfit just a costume or a tribute to the armed forces?” Peggy asked as they started their descent across campus.

“Uh, its sort of a tribute to my dad. He was in the Navy.” Steve bit the inside of his lip and scratched at the hairs at his nape. He hadn’t told anyone about his dad, not even Bucky. “He died before I was born.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“I didn’t know him so it’s not too bad I guess.” Steve shrugged. “So are you against dressing up or was your costume just a casual college student?”

“I’ll have you know this costume took a long time to put together.” Peggy gave Steve a stern look that left him sweating slightly under her gaze. Finally, she broke out in light laughter and Steve laughed nervously. “No, actually I wasn’t told of this party until a few hours ago so I didn’t really have time to put together a costume.”

Steve nodded, they continued to talk of various topics, ranging from why Tony was introducing Steve to everyone at the party- which he was very embarrassed that she had been privy to that- to the origins of Halloween and everything in between.

Steve could see the fountain off in the distance as they neared the quad and his eyes spotted the familiar red curls that signified Natasha. But she was sat there with what looked to be Bruce. Which apparently wasn’t that unusual but given that she’d left with Sam was pretty odd. Steve was going to divert their walk so that they could stop and chat with the two of them, but as he got closer he could see that the redhead was smiling and seemed to be genuinely happy, something he didn’t see that often. Whether it was due to her present company or the events prior he wasn’t sure, but he decided to steer clear, leaving the redhead to her fun. He’d just have to ask her about her and Bruce’s friendship at a later date.

For now, his attention was on the woman at his side. “So I take it you’re British, judging by the accent.”

Peggy nodded. “I’m from London. I’m doing a year abroad. One semester here and one semester in Paris.”

“Oh, Est-ce que tu parles français?” Steve asked with a sly grin, pleased at his own perfect pronunciation.

“Oui, which is not the extent of my knowledge by the way.” Steve chuckled, not only did Peggy seem smart but she was funny too. “When did you learn?”

“I was kinda a sick kid.” Steve shrugged as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Spent a lot of time reading up on history, teaching myself French. And drawing.”

“It takes a creative mind to be able to learn a language. And a cleaver one to self-teach.” Steve blushed a rosy pink and Peggy smiled up at him. “Well, this is me.”

Steve felt his smile falter. He’d barely even noticed that they’d made it all the way across campus. He could honestly say that he didn’t want this walk to end. Conversation with Peggy just flowed naturally and he didn’t feel like he had to pretend to be anyone else, he could just be himself.

Steve took a deep breath. He was really about to do this. “So there’s a football game next week. The tall blonde guy, Thor, he’s the quarterback so we were all gonna go watch him play. If you uh, if you wanna come with.”

“A quarterback in football?”

Peggy looked confused and for a moment Steve matched her expression until he realised where the confusion was coming from. “Oh uh not soccer. American football.” Peggy’s confused expression didn’t seem to clear up. “I think you guys have a similar sport called rugby?”

“Ah yes, rugby with all the pads and extra protection. I’m afraid I won’t be able to follow the game much.” Steve took that moment to look at his shoes and ready himself for a rejection. “I’d love to Steve.”

“Really?” Steve’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Great. I’ll pick you up here, on Monday at 2?”

“Sure.”

“Great. See you then.” Steve gave her one last wave as he turned to head back to his room.

He couldn’t help but smile as he walked back, despite his confusion regarding the butterflies fluttering around in his stomach. He was just starting to understand his own identity, believing that he wasn’t into women at all, but then came Peggy and now he’s just as confused as he was at the start. He knew he still liked Bucky, but Peggy gave him the same kind of tingly sensation he got whenever he was around his roommate. So did that mean he did like women or was Peggy an exception?

He had no idea. All he knew was that he had a date with Peggy. Well, maybe not a date. But he got to hang out with her again and that’s all that really mattered.

~*~

“Romeo, oh Romeo, what for art thou plans for Halloween?” Thor turned around to see Tony gesturing wildly as he strutted down the hall. Not that he needed to turn around to know it was Tony- only Tony would make ridiculous Shakespeare reference’s towards him.

“Ah Tony, I will never understand your nonsensical references,” Thor wrapped a massive arm around his shoulder as they continued down the hall. “I do indeed have plans for the evening, to which you are more than welcome to attend.”

“Right, buddy, d’you wanna drop the cryptic 19th century speak and tell me about them?”

“My good friend is putting on a costume party tomorrow to which you are more than welcome.”

“Great.” Tony clapped him on the back and began making his retreat back the way he came. “I’ll see you then.”

“Oh, and do tell Bruce about our gathering,” Thor called out to him.

“ _Bruce_? D’you really think I can drag that guy away from the lab or his computer long enough to even talk about a costume?”

Thor just shrugged. “He promised he’d attend the next party I invited him to. And he definitely would not wish to miss this one.” He’d invited Natasha earlier at breakfast and if Bruce does have a crush on the redhaired beauty then this would be a perfect opportunity for the two of them to hang out. He may have told Jane that Bruce didn’t need their help but there was no harm in Thor making things a little easier for him. Now he needed to move on to facilitate the start of what will hopefully be another future relationship, he just needed to convince Loki to come to the party. He entered their shared room, unsurprised to see his brother sat on his bed, headphones on despite him rarely listening to actual music, reading some kind of classical literature. “Ah brother, I was hoping to find you here.”

“Quelle surprise brother. Who would’ve thought I’d be in our room?” Loki said, sarcasm dripping in his voice as he dramatically turned the page.

“My good friend Heimdall is hosting a costume party for Halloween tomorrow night.” Thor sat at the end of Loki’s bed, a move he knew would instantly annoy his brother and catch his attention. “I thought it would be quite pleasant for you to hang out with our peers.”

“You wish me to converse with lesser individuals whilst they intoxicate themselves on cheap beer and attempt to fill the empty void that is their lives with a mate for the night?”

“Many of them are much more intelligent than you give them credit for, dear brother.”

“Yes well, your standards are particularly low aren’t they,” Loki mumbled with an irritated sigh. “I think I’d prefer more intellectual company for the night.”

Thor frowned. “Would this company be a party of one?” Sure his intentions for getting Loki to the party were purely selfish, but Thor really did hate that his brother refused to socialise with their peers and would prefer to spend his time alone. “Loki, would father not be disappointed in your ill efforts to socialise?”

“He is your father, not mine.” Loki scoffed.

“And is Frigga not your mother?” That did well to take some of the bite out of his sneer. Ever since they found out Loki was adopted he’d developed bitter feelings towards their father but not their mother, which Thor didn’t entirely understand. Sure their parents should have told them a while ago to save Loki chancing upon the information but wouldn’t the fault lie with both parents and not just the one? “Would she not be displeased to discover you spend your days locked away in this room?”

Loki rubbed the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh. “If I agree to attend will you leave me be.”

Thor placed his left hand on his heart and raised his right. “You have my word.” He stood from where he was seated and grabbed his gym bag, he had about 40 minutes for dinner with Jane before he was due in the weights room for training. “Oh, and I have already secured our costumes for the night. We’ll be going as our namesakes.” Thor grinned eagerly as he made a quick escape. Loki couldn’t reject the idea if he wasn’t around to hear it after all.

Thor was incredibly pleased with how their costumes had turned out, not to mention the attention that they were getting because of them. Loki looked astonishing in his costume. For all his complaints Thor knew his brother loved dressing as the trickster god, not only because it fed into his inflated ego of thinking he was above all those around him, but also because Loki really was the god of mischief. When they were kids his brother used to play all sorts of tricks and pranks on him. He’d swap the sugar and salt, put cellophane over the toilet seat, and dunk his hand in a bucket of warm water as he was sleeping so that he’d wet himself. Though he’d never tell anyone of that last one and had threatened Loki with severe bodily harm if he ever did that one again. But it was evident that his brother was in his element dressed in his black boots, green and gold armour, his jet-black hair sleeked back under his horned helmet and long green flowing cape, basking in the attention that comes with being dressed as a literal god.

Thor himself was obviously dressed as the god of thunder, wearing the silver-plated armour with the building muscles of his arms bared for all to see, the red cape and winged helmet. He’d even managed to acquire a prop for his costume and took pride in parading the hammer around.

But the true star of the trio was his beloved Jane. She looked absolutely divine dressed as one of the ancient Asgardian warriors; the Valkyrie, sworn to protect Asgard to their last breath. Fierce and courageous and everything that Jane was, including incredibly sexy. She was definitely the highlight of their joined efforts.

Thor spotted Darcy and Jane waived her over. “Ah Darcy, have you met Loki?”

“Oh yeah, he’s your better-looking emo brother right?”

“Should I be insulted by your simplistic assessment of me?” Loki sneered and Thor began to think that this may have been a bad idea.

“Hey, I called you hot didn’t I?” It seemed Darcy was more than able to combat against Loki’s less than welcoming attitude. “So emo Odinson, what brings you out of your cave?”

“Thor’s incessant chattering.”

“Yeah, I’d do pretty much anything to get him to stop talking too.” If Thor didn’t know any better he’d say these two were hitting it off. Sure it was at his expense but it seemed to be working so he didn’t care. He gently took Jane by the elbow and slowly guided her away, giving Darcy and his brother space to get to know each other better. That seems to be one pairing taken care of, hopefully, Bruce and Natasha will have the same amount of success. Maybe his parents should’ve called him Cupid instead. Though maybe it’s best they didn’t mix up the mythologies.

“Looks like your plan is working,” Jane said as she snuck a peek back to the other two.

“Yes well, I do have a gift for this sort of thing.” The two of them made their way to the drinks table where Thor began to mix them both a concoction of his own making. He was about to reach for the rum when something drew his attention and he forgot momentarily what he was reaching for. Truthfully, he momentarily forgot his own name. There in front of him stood Val, also dressed as one of the Valkyries but looking more radiant than Jane, not that he’d ever dare to say that aloud. Thor gulped as he attempted to lift his jaw off the floor. “Val, I uh, I see you too have come as a Valkyrie.”

“Yeah, well my ancestors are apparently descendants of the Valkyrie. If you believe the folklore that is. So I figured why not.” Val picked up one of the red plastic cups, filled it halfway with rum and drank it down straight before refilling. “You look good Jane.”

“Uh, yes. Yes, she does.” Thor swallowed hard, eyes lingering on Val’s chest perhaps too long. “I spoke to the football coach on your behalf Val, he’s willing to allow you to play for the team this year.”

“Really? That’s fantastic!”

“Yeah Thor, fantastic,” Jane said bitterly, not that Thor really noticed, he was mildly distracted by the press of Val’s body against his own as she hugged him in thanks. “You know what, I think I’m gonna go and check on Darcy.”

Thor released his arms from around Val to see Jane storm off in the opposite direction to where her friend and his brother were stood chatting. Shit, he’d messed up.

“Forgive me Val but it seems I must go and make amends. Coach will let you know the details of the training sessions.” Thor said as he dashed after his angry girlfriend. He really did need to make amends.

~*~

The cold air was a reprieve against her skin, the wind hitting off her sweat covered skin and offering her a few seconds of bliss before the heat rushed back through her body and urged her forward to get closer to home. She’d been in the gym for almost an hour training with Steve who had an intense workout routine to prepare for their first big soccer game. He’d made a joke about her not being able to keep up with him and she’d met his challenge head-on- and didn’t do too bad. Of course, she wasn’t able to lift as much as he could but she’d matched him on the sit-ups, pull-ups and push-ups, and was even able to out plank him.

The final part of the routine was a 30-minute run on the treadmill, which she decided to pass on in favour of a jog back to her room. Treadmills were useless at preparing you for the unevenness of outdoor terrain should you ever need to run somewhere. Plus the AC unit in the gym was on the fritz making it feel as though it was doubling up as a gym and sauna. The allure of the late October chill sounded much more appealing, not to mention it drew her closer to a shower and her bed.

She was halfway across campus when her brain instinctively told her to look over towards the fountain. The few times she’d accidentally bumped into Bruce it had been by that fountain, his usual go-to spot. But after the first few weeks it’d stopped being by accident and she’d quickly learnt that if she needed a change in company or couldn’t sleep at night, she could almost certainly assume that Bruce would be sat by the fountain, rereading one of his nerd books; _The Time Machine_ , _Neuromancer_ , _The Martian_ , _The Forever Far;_ you name it, Bruce has probably read it and was well on his way to rereading it.

Her gaze scanned the quad as she began to draw closer and her eyes landed on the very person she was subconsciously looking for. Her scientist friend was sat in his usual spot, nose buried in a book, wearing one of the most contradictory outfits she’d ever seen. He’s jeans were well fitted and obviously one of the expensive pairs that he owned, portraying the image of a man of wealth and style, but his jumper gave off the opposite look. It looked like something that had been passed down from generations; threadbare and faded- whether it had started out as beige or had wound up that way through numerous wash cycles was hard to tell- and it was at least two sizes too big on him.

He seemed to not notice her approaching and she took great pleasure in making him jump when she sat down next to him.

“Jesus!” Bruce actually physically jumped which made her laugh in response. “You’re gonna give someone a heart attack one day, you know that right?”

She shrugged a singular shoulder. “You planning on making a killer robot to take over the world?” Natasha asked with a nod towards the book now discarded on his lap.

“That’s not even close to the plot summary,” Bruce smirked with a shake of his head.

She shrugged again. “I only saw the movie adaptation.”

“There’s actually a pretty good lesson to be learned about the implications of our creations as scientists.”

“A Russian thinking about the potential implications of his actions? Now, I’ve heard it all.”

Bruce smiled at her, a cheeky grin that she was starting to learn meant he was about to make some kind of quip at her expense. “Asimov was probably the greatest thing to come out of Russia.”

“ _I_ came out of Russia.”

“My point stands.” Natasha lightly punched him in the arm, satisfied with the mini squeal of pain that it earned her as Bruce rubbed the sore spot.

A sudden gust of wind blew by, causing her to shiver. The adrenaline from her workout was starting to wear off, the wind cooling the sweat on her skin drastically reducing her body temperature. Her shoulders hunched in on themselves reflexively and she rubbed her hands along her forearms in an attempt to warm herself up. She should probably think about going back to her room soon. Before the slight chill evolves into mild hypothermia.

Bruce whipped his jumper over his head and held it out to her in offering. “Very chivalrous of you but aren’t you gonna get cold?”

Bruce shrugged, said “Worth it” and proceeded to shove his jumper in her direction.

She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t grateful for his noble offering. Against all odds the threadbare jumper still triumphantly fulfilled it’s purpose and warmed her almost instantly, the faint yet distinct smell of Bruce adding to the cosy feeling that the jumper provided.

“Thanks.” Her body shook with one last involuntary shiver. “So, Halloween tomorrow.” Bruce nodded at her obvious statement. “You got any plans?”

“Ah yes. My crazy plans start with an intense session in the lab followed by a mad sit down at my laptop to start planning my thesis proposal and ends with a chilled come down with me and everyone’s favourite Russian.”

“You are such a dork.” Natasha joked. “And whilst I appreciate being featured into your plans-“

“Not the Russian I was talking about-“

Natasha raised an eyebrow at him before continuing. “-I will be otherwise occupied with all the free booze I can handle. You should come actually. I’m sure Thor won’t mind us spreading the word.”

“Wait, you’re going to Thor’s party?” Natasha nodded. “Well, I guess Tony was bugging me to go to that earlier.”

“You don’t happen to mean Tony Stark do you?” Bruce nodded and Natasha let out a sound that was a cross between a huff of laughter and a groan. “I swear if I have to listen to that guy talk about me _getting some,_ one more time I’m gonna lose it.” Bruce’s eyebrows crumpled in confusion and Natasha waved him off, not willing to into her long and awkward conversations with Tony Stark, which literally seemed to switch between him accusing her of being in the KGB and trying to put the moves on her. When he wasn’t doing that Tony was actually a pretty funny guy, but most of the time conversing with him was just exhausting. Natasha stood from her perch on the fountain’s wall. The sweat drying on her skin was leaving her feeling sticky and in dire need of a shower. “But you should definitely come along, Thor is a very liberal host and it’d be nice to see you in a social setting without a book in your hand.”

“A wild nerd outside of his natural habitat?”

“Exactly.” Natasha winked and turned on her heel heading back towards her dorm. She didn’t realise she was still wearing Bruce’s jumper until she stripped off for the shower.

The party was in full swing by the time they arrived. She could see Thor over to the corner having a rather intense conversation with his girlfriend and couldn’t quite help the way her eyes lingered on his arms that were bared for all to enjoy. That guy really was a shining example of the male specimen. To be fair, so were her two boys. Steve’s khaki shirt was a least one size too small and hugged onto his well-defined pectorals and Bucky was working those football shorts quite well. It was just a shame that Steve was gay and Bucky was well... Bucky.

It was also a bit of shame that there was a weird atmosphere amongst the group. Maria had given her a breakdown of the change in events in her and Bucky’s loosely defined relationship, and both were evidently on the prowl to begin the ‘open’ aspect of their little exchange. Which would explain the stupor Steve seemed to be in. She and Bucky had discussed the effects that his exploits were having on Steve in great lengths and whilst Bucky had no intention of hurting Steve, he couldn’t exactly sit around and not date just because Steve had a crush that he wasn’t capable of dealing with. Which was fair enough, but the atmosphere that this set up had created was pretty awkward, at least from her perspective it was.

Which was why she was incredibly glad when Steve and Bucky’s soccer friend came over to the group. Sam may not be as tall as Steve or Bucky, but he was no less easy on the eye, if not more so. Particularly with his thousand-watt grin and Julius Caesar costume, completed with a gold thorn crown and a toga loosely draped over his left shoulder, a dark brown nipple peeking out from the right side- no doubt intentionally.

“Sam, I didn’t know you were coming to this.” Steve greeted him with a handshake and one of those manly hugs with a pat on the back.

“Yeah well, you guys kept talking about Thor’s last party so I figured I couldn’t really miss this one.” Sam’s eyes wafted over to her and Maria.

“This is Maria, my uh… friend.” Bucky said awkwardly as he introduced them. “And this is Natasha, she’s an old friend of mine from kindergarten.” Sam reached an arm across to shake their hands in turn, hand lingering as he took hold of her own. She’d be lying if she said her eyes didn’t linger on the muscular arm, something he evidently noticed as he flexed his muscle before retracting his arm. “Sam’s on the soccer team.”

“So let me guess, Kill Bill” He pointed to Maria, earning a nod as he correctly guessed her outfit. He redirected his finger towards Natasha, brow furrowing as he tried to guess what she’d come as. “I’m sorry I can’t… I mean, I can see the sexy but what was the other part of your costume?”

Natasha bit back her grin, that was a pretty confident line for someone he’d just met. Not to mention smooth. “Was that seriously the best you could come up with?”

“I’ve usually got much better chat but I just sort of go dumb when confronted by angels.”

“You’re pick up lines get better right?”

“For you, I’ll step my game up.”

“What is happening right now?” Bucky asked as he looked between the two of them. Not that she really noticed him, her eyes were currently captivated by the grin that Sam was giving her. This guy was just oozing confidence. “like don’t get me wrong, you two would make beautiful babies.”

“Sometime in the future maybe,” Sam said, not once taking his eyes off her. “But would be willing to act like rabbits in the meantime.”

“Should we give you two some room.”

“ _A_ room would be more appropriate.” She was only half-joking with that one. She fully enjoyed the disgusted groan from her friends but she enjoyed the cheeky wink from Sam more. “You know Caesar would’ve worn a tunic with that, right.”

“Yeah, but he also wasn’t a sexy black dude. Not really going for the historical accuracy” Sam flexed his muscles again and her eyes followed the slight bounce of his pectorals and the stiff brown nipple on display. “besides, I’m just providing you with a lovely view.”

“Oh Steve, that’s someone we know.” Bucky pointed in a vague direction in the room. “Let’s go and introduce them to Maria before we suffocate on the sex pheromones these two seem to be letting off at an alarming rate.”

The three of them began to head off in the direction Bucky had pointed. Maria leaving her with a parting “I’ll find somewhere else to sleep tonight.” as she left with them. Well doesn’t that make things a lot more interesting?

The next hour or so of the party was filled with constant flirting between her an Sam. He was overconfident and extremely cocky and she was loving every minute of that.

“So do I have to pretend to pass out just to get some mouth to mouth?” she said with a sly smirk.

“And you ridiculed me for shit chat.” Sam’s smirk matched her own. “Baby I don’t know CPR and I’d be more than a little afraid that I wouldn’t be able to stop at just the kiss of life.”

“Is that a promise?”

“I would promise you anything just to hear you screaming my name.”

“That sounds like a lot of talk.” She raised an eyebrow in challenge.

“I’m an emperor in the sheets. And I’m not just talking about my costume.”

“The last guy that had talk like that had the nerve to ask me if I finished as though he wouldn’t know the earthshattering quake of a female orgasm.” Seriously, that guy had just been one big disappointment and she was not looking to repeat that experience. “Most guys wouldn’t know what a clitoris was if I had an arrow pointing at it and a sign saying _give this some attention._ ”

“Lucky for you I’m taking biology 101 this year.” Sam sent her another wink and that one hit her right in her core. “but remind me again it’s that one that’s inside an up a bit right?” He held his finger out in a “come hither” gesture that made her knees lock.

She could feel the heat rising in her face and her voice sounded distant to her own ears, a low thrum in the back of her throat. “No, but if you manage to find that I’ll be more than impressed.”

Sam gave her another one of his thousand-watt grins. “I’d be more than happy to demonstrate my newfound anatomy knowledge.”

Sam was more than capable of backing up all of his talk, an experience she thoroughly enjoyed. Though she was less than impressed when he wrapped his arms around her waist and fell asleep. Him staying the night hadn’t featured into her plans for the evening and cuddling definitely didn’t either. She attempted to shake him awake but to no avail.

With a sigh, she extracted herself from his grasp, flung on her clothes and began her descent onto campus, ready to wait it out as her bedfellow overstayed his welcome.

~*~

Bruce tugged at his hair, trying to make it look like more of a mess than it usually did. Though to be fair, he didn’t have to try that hard. His hair sort of just did what it wanted most days and he rarely tried to stop it. It just so happened that today it worked well with his mad scientist costume, which wasn’t really much of a costume given that it was what he’d usually wear to the lab with the addition of a stethoscope and a bit of gel in his hair- courtesy of Tony.

“Mad scientist, really? Bit unoriginal.”

“That coming from the guy dressed as a vampire.”

“Yeah and I’m going out on the hunt.” Bruce rolled his eyes as Tony stood next to him fixing his makeup in the mirror. “So let me get this straight. I invite you to this party yesterday and your response was all _thanks but no thanks_. And now you’re getting all Dr Jekyll’ed up. What gives?” Bruce shrugged, not willing to tell Tony that the reason for his sudden change of heart was thanks to a beautiful redhead he’d been crushing on since the first day of the school year. Tony would never let up about it if he knew. Especially if he found out that redhead was at least 3 years younger than him, was athletic and did ballet- Tony would never drop it. “Well, whatever made you change your mind praise the gods for it. We’re getting you laid kid.” Tony manifested a beer and shoved it in his hand.

“I don’t need to get laid, Tony.” He said with a sigh. Tony’d been obsessed with his sex life before Betty and since they broke up his interest had doubled.

“How long’s it been? Like 5 months?” 7 actually, but Bruce wasn’t gonna correct him on that. “How have your balls not shrivelled up yet?”

“You know you have a strange obsession with my balls.”

Tony shrugged. “As your brother from another scientific mother, it is my job to help you out of this funk.”

“I’m not in a funk, Tony.” Bruce shook his friends' hands off his shoulders and retrieved his phone and wallet from his room. “Come on, we’re already late.”

“Buddy we’re not late enough and we’ve got four more cans to drink.”

Due to Tony’s insistence, they arrived at the party 2 ½ hours later than planned- though it didn’t look like it was dying down any time soon. There was a group of ghosts surrounding a keg and organising keg stands, an intense beer pong game with cups filled with some kind of green liquid that Bruce had no intention of drinking, and an apple bobbing station that smelt like it was filled with pure vodka. Parties had really stepped up a notch since the last time he went to one, though admittedly that was a few years back.

Bruce scanned around the room looking for Natasha but to no avail. Tony waived down a tall blonde figure dressed as some kind of army personnel. “Steve, we’ve got another friend to add to our band of brothers on the prowl.” Tony clapped Bruce on the back as he groaned. “This is my buddy Bruce.”

“Steve.” The blonde man introduced himself and gave him a firm handshake.

“I’m not actually on the prowl by the way. And Tony seems to make it sound like he’s hunting prey instead of trying to pick up women.”

“Yeah me neither, but Tony doesn’t seem to want to hear that.” Steve pointed towards the two other friends. “By the way, that’s Maria and Bucky.”

“Maria, enchanté.” Tony kissed the back of her hand in a show of flamboyance and Bruce mouthed an apology of his friend’s inappropriateness. “Where’s Red?”

“Nat left about an hour ago.”

“Natasha?”

“Yeah.” Steve drew out the one-syllable word in confusion.

“How do you know Natasha?” Bruce asked his friend, she'd mentioned in passing that she knew Tony but shs didn't care to explain how. He was just seriously hoping that Tony hadn't slept with her.

“She takes Dr Pyms Physics 101 class.” He answered with a shrug. So Tony’s the TA that keeps excessively flirting with her. “How do you know her?”

“We’ve bumped into each other on campus a few times.”

“Wait, you’re the guy she goes drinking with on campus?” Bucky pointed at him with a stern look, but all Bruce could think about was the fact that Natasha mentioned him to her friends.

“Hang on, you’re regularly drinking with a sexy ballerina and you didn’t tell me about it?” Tony accused with a hurt look on his face.

“There’s nothing to tell Tony, we just chat for a bit and occasionally have a drink.” Bruce turned his attention away from the betrayed look on his friend’s face. “Where did she go?”

“She found a new plaything to occupy her,” Maria informed them.

“Damn that girl wastes no time at all!” Tony lounged one arm around Bruce’s shoulder and the other around Steve’s, the distinct height difference causing him to stand lopsided. “We could learn something from her. Well not me, but you two definitely could.” Bruce tried to smile at his friend’s joke but found his face unwilling to cooperate. It was hard to pretend to be happy when he knew Natasha was off with some other guy barely giving him a second thought. “Let’s get some drinks. Maria how do you feel about body shots?"

“In your dreams Tony.”

“Well, that’s for sure.”

Bruce slipped away from the party whilst everyone was engrossed in attempting to complete a keg stand. He’d tried to enjoy himself but he couldn’t stop picturing Natasha sweaty and panting with some random guy, something that he was imagining right now, which just sort of made him feel like a dirty perv.

But he just couldn’t get the image out of his head. Just like he couldn’t get the image of Natasha in her yoga pants and tank top from yesterday out of his head. He’d thanked the gods for the wind picking up, giving him the perfect excuse to offer up his jumper but the image was already ingrained in his head and he starting to get a tingly feeling in his pants. God he really needed to get a grip. Natasha was way out of his league and would never even consider a guy like him, as proven by her leaving the party with another guy- no doubt a tall athletic guy that he had no hope of competing with.

“Hey Frankenstein, where’s your monster?”

Bruce momentarily wondered if he possessed the power to manifest the object of his lustful thoughts or the ability to summon Natasha’s presence through his mind alone. He shook his head free of all his previous thoughts as he squinted into the dark to try and see Natasha. When his eyes did finally find her he couldn’t help but smile. She may have gone off with some other guy, but she came wandering out into the night wearing his jumper.

“Tony’s still at the party.” Natasha rolled her eyes as she came to join him by the fountain, their usual spot it would seem. “Am I ever getting that jumper back?”

“Probably not. It’s pretty cosy.”

“I’m pretty sure that counts as stealing.” He said in jest, truthfully he had no issue with her stealing it for a while longer if only because it would inevitably smell like her when she eventually returned it.

“Possession is nine-tenths of the law.”

“It’s really not.” He said with a huff of laughter. “What brings you out here?” He tried to sound casual, but how does one sound casual when what they’re really asking is _hey I heard you went back with some guy, why are you out here and not fucking him?_ , especially when he’s hoping the answer will be that they got as far as the front door and then decided to part ways.

“There’s a soccer player asleep in my bed that I’d really rather wasn’t.” Bruce’s eyes widened with concern that he tried and failed to hide. “Don’t worry, not a consent issue or anything." Natasha quickly acquiesced. "I’d just really rather he didn’t hang around. Whatever happened to a quick in, out and over?” Bruce couldn’t stop the blush creeping up his neck. What could he say to that? That any guy who got the opportunity to sleep with her would want to hang on for as long as possible. That anyone who did let her go so quickly would be an idiot. That he’d give almost anything to be that guy sleeping in her bed. “Sorry, I’m massively oversharing.”

“No no, it’s uh” Bruce cleared his throat. “It’s fine. Though I’m pretty sure you’re more than capable of getting rid of anyone who overstayed their welcome.”

“True, though he’s out like a light and is 190lbs of pure muscle. And I’m not _that_ strong.” They both chuckled as silence settled over them, as it did often during their conversations. Not an awkward silence, just a simple lapse in conversation that neither of them felt the need to fill with meaningless small talk. There was a comfort in their silences. “How comes you left the party? Tony not keeping you entertained?”

“Tony was hell-bent on trying it on with your friend Maria, and when that didn’t work out he moved on to a group of cheerleaders.” Bruce shifted awkwardly. “And it wasn’t really my scene. I kinda only went because of you.” Shit. Did he just say that last bit aloud? From the look on Natasha’s face, he definitely did. “You know, 'cause you invited me.”

“Yeah sorry about that. I reckon it’s still going on; we could head back over there for a bit.” Natasha’s phone chimed with an incoming text from a number saved on her phone as _Caesar_ , a simple eggplant emoji was all that the text contained. Natasha smirked, shrugged and sent back a peach before putting her phone away. “Or if you want Thor’s got a game next week. We were gonna go watch that. You should come with. And I promise I won't leave before you even get there.”

Bruce glanced down at her phone that chimed again with another text from _Caesar_ the soccer player sleeping in her bed he assumed. A stark reminder of how out of his league Natasha really was. “Thanks but I’ve got a meeting with Dr Selvig about my thesis proposal pretty early tomorrow. And I don’t really know much about football.” Bruce said lamely.

“You’re supposed to be a genius aren’t you? I’m sure you can work it out.” Natasha took his phone typed in what he assumed to be her number and dropped called it before handing it back to him and standing to leave. “I’ll text you the details.”

“Sure.” Bruce gave her one last smile before she turned to leave, eyes tracking the retreating figure that was off to hook up with another guy whilst still wearing his jumper. He really needed to get a grip.


	6. Football is just rugby with protection right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve just wants his friend to be happy.  
> Bruce finds out that his feelings aren't as subtle as he thought.  
> Natasha gives out some advice that she might regret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the delay in updating this fic!  
> Life has just been super busy lately and I've barely had time to write.  
> But the next chapter is finally here so I hope you enjoy!  
> I also genuinley know nothing about American football so sorry of those parts are wrong (I blame google).

Steve awkwardly hung around outside Peggy’s apartment, hoping that she was still up for coming to Thor’s game. He’d completely forgotten to get her number and only told her that he’d pick her up outside her apartment at 2. So he’d gotten here 15 minutes early and eagerly waited, hoping that she’d remember and actually turn up. 

He was put out of the misery of waiting when Peggy emerged from the foyer, a large smile on her face and looking just as breath-taking as he remembered. 

“Hey, you remembered.” Steve began to go in for a hug but stopped halfway, remembering that he’d only just met this woman a few days ago and that a hug at this stage may not be entirely appropriate. Which was a fatal error as it meant he was now stood awkwardly close. He was luckily saved by Peggy meeting him halfway, giving him a one-armed hug and kiss on the cheek. Her lips her incredibly soft and he so desperately wanted to know what they’d feel like pressed against his own. He quickly drew himself away, worried that he may actually do something that he may wind up regretting. “I forgot to get your number and I wasn’t sure if you’d come.” 

“Well, we should probably exchange numbers for the future.”

Steve’s face lit up. That was practically confirmation that they would be meeting up again. Another occasion where he’d get to be around this amazing woman. When did his luck change so drastically? 

“Yeah, definitely.” Steve fumbled around in his pocket and dug out his mobile, handing it over in exchange for hers so that he could put in his number. “Uh feel free to text me anytime.” 

“I may just hold you to that one.” The smile Peggy offered him made his stomach flip. “I hope you don’t mind, but I thought I'd come representing the home country.” Peggy undid her jacket to reveal the white polo underneath, the rose emblem emblazoned just above her left breast. “It’s an England rugby shirt. You can’t brainwash me with your Americanised version of the sport.” 

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Steve said through his laughter. They soon arrived at the football ground where a crowd of their friends where sat together – all minus Natasha and Bruce. “Hey guys, this is Peggy. Peggy, this is Maria and Bucky, and you’ve already met Tony.” 

“I have indeed,” Peggy smirked as she waved a quick hello at the three of them. 

“Glad to have some more female representation in our group,” Maria said, luckily distracting Peggy from Tony who had mouthed the word _nice_ and gave him a waggle of his eyebrow. 

“So how did you two meet?” Bucky asked quizzically. 

“Tony introduced us actually.” 

“Yeah, he was uh, playing his game of _have you met Steve?_ ” Steve awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “Luckily this one didn’t wind up with either of us getting punched.” It’d almost happened at Thor’s first party when Steve first met Tony, and he was quickly learning that getting punched was a potential hazard when hanging out with Tony.

“Where’s Nat and Bruce.” 

“They went to get drinks.” Well isn’t that interesting, once again the two of them were off together. Maybe he was inflating the situation, or maybe there was something there. “I can text Nat your order if you want something,” Bucky offered.

“Or you could have some scotch.” Tony manifested a flask from only God knows where and held it out to them. 

“Nah I’m good.” He was definitely not up for embarrassing himself in front of Peggy by trying to drink alcohol straight. “I’ll just have a beer.” 

“I’ll put in an order for a beer but I’ll definitely take up the offer of scotch,” Peggy said as she reached out for the flask, taking a swig of the liquor and not even flinching at the taste and man was that cool, Steve would’ve been sputtering all over the place. There was definitely no way he was having some now. Peggy let out a content hum of approval. “It’s hard to find good scotch in this country.”

“I get this stuff imported from the Scottish Lowlands.” 

“That can’t be cheap!” 

Tony shrugged. “Worth it.” 

Steve was no longer surprised by Tony’s outlandish spending habits. He’d quickly learnt that the guy was filthy rich, but not because Tony was one to brag. Sure he liked to do things like import scotch from Scotland or buy the latest sports car but he was also incredibly charitable. Steve had quickly learnt that if you were ever down on your luck or in need, you didn’t even have to ask Tony, he probably already knew and was already signing a cheque book to sort it out. Not that Steve would ever want to take advantage of that. It was just nice to see. Tony had expensive taste but he also liked to know that his friends were alright, which was a rare trait to find in people, let alone incredibly rich people. 

Natasha and Bruce arrived a few minutes before the game got started, carrying several bottles of beer for each of them, deciding that it was best to stock up than to keep having to go back and forth. 

“Those two make an adorable couple.” Peggy whispered two him. 

Steve looked over in the direction Peggy was looking in, noticing Natasha with her elbow propped on Bruce’s shoulder, speaking closely into his ear. “They’re not a couple.”

Though he had to admit, she wasn’t wrong. 

“Oh. Well, he wants them to be.” 

“What makes you say that?” Steve had thought that Bruce may have had feelings for Natasha but he wasn’t so sure. But to hear someone else thought the same thing made him think that maybe he was right.

“You can see it in the way he looks at her.” He could see the smile playing at the corner of Bruce’s lips as Natasha explained some aspect of the game to Bruce, as he’d also been doing for Peggy. 

“D’you think she’s into him?”

“I’m so sure about that one. She seems like a hard nut to crack.”

“That’s a massive understatement.” Getting blood from a stone would be easier than getting Natasha to open up. But that wasn’t gonna stop him from trying. 

“Right, so explain to me what’s going on here,” Peggy demanded, referring back to the game. 

The crowd had erupted in cheers as Thor began to run with the ball toward the endzone. “Thor’s gonna try take the ball to the end for six points. If he can pull this off then that’s another six points for us. Not to mention it’ll be pretty impressive.” Sure enough, Thor managed to make it to the endzone, twisting and turning to avoid being tackled and bringing the ball safely into the endzone. “Surely this isn’t that different from rugby.” Steve had a quick google of the sport last night and the rules seemed pretty similar to him. 

“It’s not entirely different,” Peggy admitted. “But there’s much more contact and our players don’t bother with so much extra padding and protection.” 

“Jheeze. The English sound tough!” 

“We are.” She stated proudly. “Except for the football players. Or soccer, whatever you Americans call the sport. Those boys will go down for anything.” 

“Oh, now that’s just plain offensive,” Steve said, pretending to be genuinely hurt by her words. She wasn’t wrong about that; he’d seen guys roll on the floor for the smallest tap on their ankle. Sometimes it was downright embarrassing. “I’ll have you know I play soccer and I rarely go down for anything.” 

“Well yes but that’s because you’re a noble man, Steve.” Steve couldn’t help but blush a little. “Not to mention you’re built like a tank.” Peggy softly punched his arm for emphasis. “Not much could take you down.” 

“I’d like to think we play more of an honest game than what you’re used to over in England.” 

“I’d have to believe that to see it.” 

“Then I guess you’ll have to come down to catch one of our games.” 

“Well you have my number,” Steve’s stomach flipped again as Peggy gave him another soft smile. “You’ll have to text me the details.” 

“I will.” Steve couldn’t help smiling back. He couldn’t help but do nothing but smile whenever Peggy was around. 

“What the hell are they stopping for now?” Peggy yelled as she turned her attention back to the game and Steve couldn’t help but chuckle. Yeah, he’d definitely be texting her some time. 

Steve liked Bruce. He was one of the quiet types but once you got to know him, he could be very confident and funny. He just didn’t seem that good around large groups of people, particularly people he didn’t know too well. Maybe that was why Steve had taken to him, because he reminded him so much of himself. 

Perhaps another reason was because of something else Steve recognised they had in common- the fact that they were both head over heels with someone they thought they’d never get to be with. 

He’d noticed the way he looked at her, with pure awe and adoration. And he’d definitely noticed how deflated he looked when he found out she had hooked up with Sam at the Halloween party. He’d also noticed the way Natasha seemed far happier whenever she was around him; though he couldn’t tell if it was because the redhead had feelings for Bruce. Deciphering that woman’s true feelings was a task he knew he wasn’t skilled enough to complete. 

But Natasha had become one of his closest friends over the past few months and so if Bruce made her truly happy then the least he could do was try to facilitate that. Maybe not set them up completely, Lord knows he certainly didn’t have the level of skill (or experience) to do that. But he could at least encourage the scientist to take a step forward and make his feelings known. 

He seized his opportunity when Bruce went off to the bathroom, using the same excuse to follow the scientist away from the group. 

“You know Bruce, we have a lot in common.” He said as the two of them exited the bathroom. 

“Oh yeah, how so?” Bruce asked quizzically. 

“Well for one, we both don’t do so well around crowds.” 

Bruce let out a chuckle. “Doesn’t take a genius to see that I’m more than a little socially awkward.” 

“We both seem to do fine once we get to know people and in smaller groups.” Steve shrugged and dug his hands deep into his pockets. “but I guess large crowds provide too many people that might notice us.” His reason for not wanting to be noticed may be completely different from Steve’s own but they both understand the desire to not want to be under the spotlight. “But there’s another major thing we both have in common…” Bruce’s brow scrunched in confusion. “we both know what it’s like to have feelings for someone we think is completely unobtainable.” 

“What. I, I don’t know what-“ 

“I’ve seen the way you look at Natasha.” Bruce began to spout a denial but Steve raised his hand to stop him. “You’re subtle, but it’s a look I’m pretty familiar with so I can kinda tell.” 

Bruce stopped a few rows from the one their friends were sat in, far enough that they were still out of earshot but close enough that they could clearly see their group. And the redhead that was the topic of their conversation. 

“D’you think she knows?” 

“No. Well, I think she might do deep down. Not much gets passed that one.” 

“Isn’t that the truth.” Bruce let out a small laugh. 

“I think you two would be good for each other.” 

Bruce shrugged. “What does it matter? Natasha’d never be interested in a guy like me.” 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” 

Bruce's face turned bitter. “You’ve seen the guys she hooks up with. They’ve all been chiselled to perfection. D’you really think I can compete with that?” 

“Admittedly you’re not physically the type of guy she’s gone for in the past.” Bruce’s shoulders slumped down in defeat making Steve feel bad for affirming his self-conscious opinion. “but how many of those guys has she seen more than once.” 

“Sam.” 

“Doesn’t count. He never left.” And thanks to that Maria never left his room, which meant he was stuck crashing in Tony’s room for the past few days. Good thing that guy had a couch in there. “And those are never the kind of guys she’d have a relationship with.” 

“That’s because she doesn’t want a relationship. She told me that herself.” Bruce looked down at his shoes for a long time, and when he finally looked back up at Steve he could see the look of helplessness in the other man's eyes. “and I don’t think I could handle being just another one-night stand.” 

“Look, Bruce,” Steve placed a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe she’s not looking for a relationship. But she’s definitely looking for something and I’m not saying it’s you. But I think you might be able to bring her closer to whatever that is. And to be honest, what have you got to lose?” 

“The friendship that I have with her, which may be the closest that I ever get to what I want. You apparently know what I’m going through. You must be able to understand that.” 

Steve looked over to their group where he could just about see Bucky laughing and joking with Maria and Tony. He could also see Peggy, the woman that had brought him so much confliction over the past few days. Yeah, he really did understand that part. 

“I do. And I also know that you’ll hate yourself if you don’t try.” 

“And risk coming off as the creepy older guy who can’t have a friendship with a woman without wanting to turn it into something more?” 

Steve shrugged his shoulders and offered Bruce a sympathetic smile. “That part I can’t relate to I’m afraid.” Bruce gave him a small smile in return. “But I’m just thinking about my friend and I like to see her happy. And you make her happy Bruce, she’d said as much herself.” 

Bruce’s face instantly lit up. “She did?”

“She did.” Steve nodded, thinking back to the conversation he’d had with Natasha whilst the others were playing football. “I don’t know about either of your pasts but she said you guys have a lot in common. She also said you make her laugh and I haven’t seen her laugh as much as when she’s with you.” 

“So what, you think I should ask her out or something?” 

Steve shrugged and figured the best advice he could give was the very advice Natasha gave to him. “You’ve got two options. You either subtly ask her out and hope she says yes _or_ kiss her and hope she doesn’t punch you for it. But be warned, she’s a fighter so if she isn’t into it then she probably will punch you.”

“She’s definitely a fighter,” Bruce said with a chuckle. “So what about you then? You gonna heed your own advice?” 

Steve ran a hand through his hair. “That one’s a little more complicated.” And boy was that an understatement. 

After finding out that Bucky maybe wasn’t as far out of his league as he thought, he was even more confused about what he should do. He could ask Peggy out, and he’s pretty sure that he wants to, but what if that ruins his chances with Bucky? Complicated didn’t even begin to cover the situation he was in. 

~*~

“There she is!” Bucky yelled as he and Maria approached her. “Look what the cat finally dragged in.” 

“Fuck off Bucky! It’s not my fault you two were hauled up in your room all weekend.” 

“Says the one who was hauled up with Sam all weekend” Maria retorted. 

She hadn’t planned on it but Sam had wound up staying in her room the night of the party, and the next night after that, only leaving around midday on Sunday when Natasha finally decided that she needed some space and actual sleep, and he needed a change of clothes. Not to mention Sam had long overstayed his welcome. Don’t get her wrong, the sex was great. Actually great was an understatement, it was easily the best sex she’d had in her very short life. But Sam was becoming a bit too familiar in her presence and she didn’t want him getting the wrong idea. She had no intention of their time together extending beyond a few hours but it definitely would not be extending beyond the past few days. 

“Whatever. Where’s Steve?” Natasha asked, noticing that the tall blonde wasn’t with them. Not entirely surprising given that he probably hadn’t been able to enter his own room given that Bucky and Maria had been occupying it. And that was only because she and Sam had been occupying her room, resulting in Maria having to find somewhere else to spend the weekend. 

“He’s gonna meet us there. Said he’s meeting someone.” Natasha raised both eyebrows in surprise. “Dunno who, but they’re coming to the game. Nice hickey by the way.” Bucky reached over to pull back the part of her sweater that she thought had been doing well to hide most of the bruise. “A parting gift from Sam I take it?” Natasha rolled her eyes and batted his hand away. 

“So you gonna tell us about it or what?” 

“It was a good lay, what more can I tell you?” 

“Yeah, that’s not gonna cut it. You two were hauled up for like almost 60 hours, we’re gonna need details.” Oh, boy was Bucky gonna regret that statement. 

Natasha gave him a challenging smirk but Bucky didn’t seem to be backing down. “Fine, it was the best sex of my life and I came like a train. Does that satisfy you?” 

“Ew, no I did not need to know that!” Bucky said over Maria’s: “It clearly satisfied you.” jab. 

“You asked for detail.” 

“Hey, what’re you guys talking about?” Bruce asked as he and Tony came to join them. 

“We’re teasing Nat about her hook up with Sam,” Maria informed them, much to Natasha’s dismay. She definitely didn’t need Tony joining in on the teasing. 

“The guy she hooked up with at the Halloween party,” Bucky explained to both Bruce and Tony’s confused looks. “And then spent the entire weekend with.” 

Tony got an excited look on his face whilst Bruce looked more hurt if anything, though she couldn’t be sure as to why. 

“Please tell me there’s a video!” Tony squealed. “Or pictures. My imagination is doing great things but I want more.” Bruce gave Tony a whack on the arm to warn him to knock it off. “What? Don’t get jealous just because everyone here spent the weekend getting laid whilst you spent the weekend in the lab.” Bruce gave Tony a thoroughly pissed off look but he didn’t seem to care much. “Brucie here just gets jealous when he hears about other people having sex.” 

“For Christ’s sake, no I don’t Tony.” 

“Drinks, we could use some drinks,” Natasha said, sensing an opportunity to get her and Bruce out of this teasing frenzy. “Bruce, should we go and get some drinks?” 

“Oh god, yes please,” Bruce said dramatically, evidently as eager as she was to get out of there. 

After taking everyone’s drink orders, which mostly consisted of beer apart from Tony who requested scotch- predictably starting a debate between him and Bruce about the chances of the _beer_ stand selling scotch- Bruce and Natasha headed towards the stand and away from the running commentary of teasing that was coming from their friends. 

“It’s funny that. You’re getting teased because you didn’t get laid and I’m getting teased because I did.” 

“It’s almost like they’ll tease us no matter what happens.” Bruce joked. “Why are we friends with them?” 

Natasha shrugged. “I’ve known Bucky since I was a kid and Maria’s my roommate. The real question is why are you friends with Tony Stark?”

Seriously, that friendship just didn’t add up in her book. Tony was out there and all in your face with his fast quips and sexual jokes, whilst Bruce was calm and caring, his humour a mix of self-deprecation, dark cynicism and sarcasm. They were definitely the weirdest pairing she’d ever come across. 

Bruce tugged at the hairs at his nape. “He’s been the one stable character in my life for the past six years.” 

Natasha couldn’t help the pang of pity she felt for Bruce just then, which she instantly chided herself for. She hated it when people pitied her for her upbringing but she couldn’t help it, because no matter how crappy her family history was, she still had Clint and Laura. Bruce on the other hand, as far as she knew, had no one. She knew his mum died when he was just a kid and given that he doesn’t talk about his dad it was pretty clear he wasn’t in the picture, which just left his Aunt Susan- the lady who had raised him since he was a child and passed away over the summer. Bruce was officially without any living family and all he had was those he chose to call family, currently only consisting of Tony. 

“Well, you’ve got us now.” She smiled at Bruce as he gave a confused look. “We’ve got four years here and I don’t intend on going anywhere.” A warm sensation settled in the pit of her stomach when a small smile flittered across Bruce’s lips. “The others might be teasing pricks but I think I’m pretty great.” 

“You are,” Bruce said in a voice that was barely there, assumingly unintentionally as he immediately skipped over his comment. “So Sam...” Natasha let a loud groan, she expected teasing from the others but not from him. Bruce held his hands up in a show of peace. “You don’t have to answer any questions about him if you don’t want to.” 

“Tell that to the others.” 

“I’m sure they mean well.” Natasha gave him a blank stare. “Okay maybe your friends do, Tony’s just seeing how many inappropriate jokes he can make before you punch him.” Natasha let out a small chuckle. Tony was definitely edging close to that moment. “I, well, it’s just. I mean, I don’t know the guy or anything. But I wouldn’t think you’d spend a whole weekend with someone that you didn’t want to pursue anything with.” 

Natasha rolled her eyes and let out another groan. “Why is everyone trying to force me into a relationship with Sam?” 

“That wasn’t my intention.” Bruce quickly defended. “We can uh, we can drop it.” 

“I know.” Natasha sighed and ran a hand through her short red curls. “It’s just since the start of colleague Bucky has been pestering me about getting into a relationship or something. And I know he’s just making fun or whatever but…” 

“But you don’t want that?” 

Natasha shook her head. “I don’t know what I want. I just know that I don’t want to go through what I went through with Matt again.” As much as she likes to pretend that she’s tough and made of ice, those wounds were still fresh and she was pretty certain she’d be bearing the scars of Matt for a long time coming. 

“For what it’s worth, I meant it when I said that guy was an idiot.” Natasha began to give him one of her practised smiles but gave up halfway. Bruce was able to see through those so where was the point in even trying. “Any guy would be lucky.” 

“He clearly didn’t think so.” This conversation was getting a little too heavy for her likings, as conversations with Bruce often seemed to do. She rarely opened up to anyone and yet with Bruce it seemed all her innermost thoughts would just spill out of her and before she knows it she’s told him things she’s never told anyone before. She definitely needed the spotlight off of her. “What about you, you telling me that even with all the help from Tony Stark that you haven’t managed to find you a nice girl to read _The Theory of Everything_ with?” 

“One- I think Tony may actually be a deterrent if anything.”

“I’ll say.” 

“Two- you do realise us nerds have sex the same way you cool kids do right.” Natasha let out a snort of laughter, a sound Bruce seemed to be able to draw out of her so easily. “To be honest, there is someone I’m starting to get feelings for but I think it would just make things too awkward.” 

“You should go for it!” Natasha noted the slight hypocrisy in her statement and amended, “If you’re really into her that is, or him.” She added with a shrug. “it’s always worth a shot.” 

“Her. I dunno. I mean I’d like to think we’re really good friends and I don’t really want to ruin that.” 

Natasha tried to think who it might be, and the only name that seemed to pop up in her head was Jane. Bruce mentioned that he met Thor through Jane when he was tutoring her for one of her physics classes. It would totally make sense if Bruce had developed feelings for her but didn’t act on them because of his friendship with Thor. But she distinctly remembers seeing Thor and Jane in a pretty heated argument at the Halloween party so maybe that was Bruce’s chance. His way in, so to speak.

“You might as well ask her out. You’ll never know what will happen if you don’t give it a try.” 

“Yeah, maybe I will.” 

“You not playing either?” Natasha asked as she sat next to Steve. 

“Nah, big game next week. Cant really risk getting injured. You?” 

“Same. Madame B would kill me if I broke my leg a few weeks before the performance.” 

Thor had joined them after the game, high off of victory and eager to celebrate his win, and after finding out that neither Bruce nor Peggy knew the basic rules of football, he was insistent that they take to the field and give the game a go. Natasha would usually be up for that sort of thing but given that the Christmas performance was only a few weeks away, she couldn’t risk sustaining any kind of injury, so she was forced to watch from the side-lines with Steve. 

Not that they had the worse end of the deal. Steve was pretty good company and they had the stash of beer with them, as well as Tony’s scotch (turns out that guy never goes anywhere without a flask of the stuff). As they sat there watching their friends try their hands at the sport- some proving to be better than others- Natasha tracked Steve’s eyes as they seemed to be fixated on the latest addition to their gang. 

“You like her don’t you?” As expected, Steve went bright red from her question and attempted to sputter around a denial. “It’s okay to like her _and_ like Bucky you know.” 

“Who said I…” Steve shook his head and let out a small laugh. “It is impossible to hide anything from you; isn’t it.” 

“Pretty much.” Natasha shrugged. “So I was right wasn’t I. You do like her.” She nodded over towards where the others were playing on the fields, specifically at Steve’s new friend Peggy. 

Steve ran a hand through his short blond hair. “I don’t know. I mean I think I do. But I didn’t really think that I was into women all that much.” 

“You might not be.” Steve gave her a confused look. “It might just be _her_. Does it even matter to you that she’s a woman?” Steve gave her a helpless shrug causing Natasha to sigh deeply, as much as she loved Steve’s innocence and naiveite this kid really didn’t know anything about much. “Does part of your attraction to her include the fact that you like her breasts or are those just two sacks of irrelevance?” 

Steve’s face switched to a darker shade of red. “God, you’re intent on embarrassing me aren’t you?” 

“We’re two grown adults Steve. We can talk about boobs and not get embarrassed by it.” Natasha rolled her eyes. “My point is, is part of your attraction to Peggy because she’s a woman and has things like breasts that you find attractive, or is her gender and thus breasts irrelevant to you?” 

“I dunno. I mean I guess they’re nice but I wouldn’t say they have anything to do with why I like her.” 

“Okay.” Finally, they were starting to get somewhere. They might not be able to get to the bottom of Steve’s feelings today but at the very least they could get him to a stage where he was no longer embarrassed to talk about sex and attraction. “And same for Bucky. Do you like him because he’s a guy or is that just secondary?” 

“I think it’s secondary.”

“Well then maybe you’re attracted to people regardless of gender,” Natasha said with a shrug. “Maybe you’re pansexual.” 

“Maybe.” Steve nodded along in thought. “But I don’t really wanna go putting a label on it. I mean, who’s to say this isn’t just me overinflating a minor attraction that I have to someone because I know the guy I’m really crazy about won't ever be interested in me in the same way?” 

Man, this guy was complicated. For someone who portrayed the image of having everything all put together, there really was a lot going on in Steve’s head. “Do you really think that’s what’s going on here?” Steve shook his head. “Do you like her the same way you like Bucky?” He nodded. “Well, then I don’t think you’re overinflating anything. And what makes you think he wouldn’t be interested?” 

“The fact that he’s fucking Maria and any other girl he can with any chance he gets. The fact that he’s not even gay. The fact that-"

“Whoah whoah whoah, slow down there. You know Bucky’s bi right?” Steve jerked his head back, shocked by the revelation. Which was pretty surprising to her, Bucky had never hidden his sexuality from anyone. Though he also never felt the need to explicitly tell anyone either. She’d only found out he was bisexual because one day in 8th grade he’d told her that he’d kissed Nora Casey under the oak tree only to tell her, just as casually, that he’d kissed Christoph Hendry the next day. “You really are young and naïve. Also, I wouldn’t completely write him off as someone who wouldn’t be interested in you.” In truth, she suspected Bucky to have a slight crush on his roommate that he just wasn’t entirely aware of himself. He was always flirting with the tall blond and would always be giving him a string of compliments beyond what was normal behaviour for Bucky. But he’d been so caught up in the idea of not wanting to make Steve feel uncomfortable as he discovered his own sexuality that he’d blinded himself to his own feelings. Or at least that was her working theory. “But until such a time comes, if you have feelings for Peggy you might as well take the shot.” 

“What do I even say to her?” 

Natasha shrugged. “You’ve got two options. You either subtly ask her out and hope she says yes _or_ kiss her and hope she doesn’t punch you for it. But be warned, she looks like a fighter so if she isn’t into it then she probably will punch you.” 

Steve nodded “I guess if it goes wrong I can also ways just blame you.” They both let out a short laugh. “Speaking of you.” Natasha groaned, readying herself for another round of mocking about her weekend activities. “You gonna tell me what’s going on with you and Bruce?” 

“What?” well she really hadn’t been expecting that. “No, where’s Sam? How was sex with Sam? When are you and Sam tying the knot?” 

“Oh please. Everyone knows you and Sam would never work.” That was definitely true. “But I’ve seen you and Bruce together.” Natasha’s brows scrunched in confusion. “The other night after you left the party. I saw you and Bruce sat at the fountain whilst you were supposed to be off with Sam. You looked happy Nat, like genuinely happy.” 

“Okay for the record I was with Sam and did go back to Sam. And also nothing is going on between me and Bruce. We’re just good friends.” Steve gave her a hard stare. “He makes me laugh and we have a lot in common. What more do you want me to tell you?” Seriously, Bruce was great and all but they were just good friends and nothing more. “Is a girl not allowed to have male friends that she doesn’t want to sleep with?” 

“Yeah, for sure. Only you don’t have male friends of that kind.” 

“You, Bucky,” Natasha counted on each finger. “Tony, Thor.” 

“Okay we both know Bucky and I don’t count as that kind of male friend. And would you even count Tony as a friend?” He had a point there. Tony was more like that annoying kid in class that you’d hate to be paired with in science class but occasionally says a funny joke that you begrudgingly laugh at. “And are you telling me that you _don’t_ want to sleep with Thor?” Natasha thought about it for a moment. “If the offer was on the table to have sex with Thor, would you turn it down?” 

“Okay point proven. But that doesn’t mean anything is going on between me and Bruce.” When she looked at Bruce all she saw was a friend, not someone who’s bones she immediately wanted to jump. Not that he wasn’t a good-looking guy. Perhaps not in the same way that someone like Steve or Thor were so glaringly attractive, but Bruce’s attractiveness was much more subtle, something that could easily be looked over but when it was noticed it became much more obvious, particularly as you got to know the man himself. The sweet and gentle geek content with the simple things in life. But just because she could appreciate his physical beauty as well as his inner beauty, didn’t mean she wanted to sleep with him or anything like that. “But if I did have feelings for him then I wouldn’t sit on them, I would tell him.” 

Steve laughed one of his full belly laughs. “Maybe you would. But I’m pretty certain he has feelings for you.”

“What?” Natasha looked at Steve and then looked toward the field where Bruce was passing the ball between himself, Thor and Tony. He turned to look towards the two of them and gave her a dopey grin along with a wave. Natasha tentatively waved back, something warm settling in her stomach as she watched him interact with her friends. Tony, obviously not noticing that his friend wasn’t paying attention, threw the ball his way anyway and hit Bruce square in the head, knocking him to the ground. Natasha’s breath caught momentarily but she was put at ease when Bruce hopped back up and gave her a thumbs-up before finally turning back to continue with his less than impressive throws. She had to stop herself from laughing at his less than stellar athletic capabilities. She couldn’t deny that he made her happy. He was incredibly funny and was one of the few people that could actually understand her. She just didn’t think she saw him in that way. But apparently, he saw her in that way. “What makes you say that?” 

Steve shrugged. “Call it a hunch.” Shit, and she’d just gone and told him that he should take his shot with the woman he had feelings for. She may be starting to regret all the love advice she’s dished out today. “I’m not trying to push you into anything, if you don’t have feelings for him then that’s fair enough. I just think the two of you would be good for each other that’s all. I don’t really know Bruce that well, hell, I don’t even know you that well-” 

“No, you don’t.” 

Steve frowned at her, making her regret her harsh tone. “Look, you can forget I said anything. As we can tell I obviously know next to nothing about dating and relationships and what not... but it’s something to think about.” 

Now wasn’t that an understatement. She’s gonna have to think about just how she was going to let Bruce down without breaking his heart after she was the one who unknowingly told him to ask her out. That was gonna suck. 

~*~

“You don’t even like football!” Tony stated, and he wasn’t wrong. Bruce not only despised the sport, but he also didn’t know the first thing about it. The points system didn’t make sense, the constant stop/start was disruptive and the tackling was brutish. But Natasha had invited him along with the promise that they would get to hang out and he would be damned if he was gonna miss that opportunity. 

“Look do you wanna come or not?” 

“Is Maria gonna be there?” 

Bruce rolled his eyes, if there was any doubt that Tony only had one thing on his mind at all times, it was just erased. “You know she’s not gonna sleep with you right?” 

“That’s what you think my friend.” Tony snagged his jacket from his closest and headed for the door. 

Bruce couldn’t deny that he was looking forward to this game. Maybe not the football side of things, but the promise of time with Natasha had him counting down the days to this afternoon. 

Though hearing about the time she’d spent with that Sam guy over the weekend left him feeling more than a little deflated. And then her encouragement to ask out the woman he liked, whilst unknowingly encouraging him to ask her out- well that just left him more than a little confused. He was sure she wouldn’t have said that if she knew she was talking about herself. 

Bruce decided to shrug off all of those thoughts and focus on just getting to spend time with the redhead. 

The crowd erupted in cheers as Thor caught the ball at the end of the pitch and Bruce would be lying if he said he had any idea of what was going on right now. 

Natasha could evidently see the confusion on his face. She propped an elbow on his shoulder and leaned in close and it took all that Bruce had not to breathe in the scent of her perfume. God, she smelt amazing. “Everyone’s cheering because Thor caught the ball in the endzone,” Natasha explained. “That’s six points for us, taking us clear into the lead by 18 points.” 

“Technically that’s not a ball,” Bruce smirked at her as she rolled her eyes. “A ball is either spherical or egg-shaped. That’s an oval.” 

“And technically, you’re a dork.” A few more minutes went by of repetitive play. One team would run the ball to one end of the field, the other team would try to tackle them to the ground and do the same. God this was such a boring sport! How did people enjoy this? At one point the losing team (they had some kind of ridiculous name that Bruce didn’t care to remember) set the ‘ball’ down and one guy got ready to kick it, confusing Bruce further about the rules of this game. He was saved having to ask Natasha when she pre-emptively explained, “They’re gonna attempt for a field goal. They’re trying to claw back some points but it’s no use, I’ve seen their kicker, he’ll put it wide by about 10 yards or so.”

“Wanna bet?” Tony asked as he turned to face the two of them. 

“Put your money where your mouth is, rich boy.” 

“A drink of your choosing. Top shelf liquor included.” 

“Done.” Natasha stretched out her hand to seal the deal with a shake.

Sure enough, Natasha was right and the kicker put it wide of roughly 11 yards. Natasha simply smirked at Tony, raising a singular eyebrow to celebrate her small victory. But the smirk Tony gave in response filled Bruce’s stomach with dread. He’d seen that smirk several times over. 

“Fine. You, me, tomorrow evening. I’ll buy you all the top-shelf liquor you can handle.” Tony said with a waggle of his eyebrow. Bruce wasn’t sure how much more he could take of Tony flirting with Natasha. He knew his friend had a certain appeal, and the thought of Natasha actually going with it made his stomach turn. But her next words brought him some kind of relief.

“Urgh, dream on Stark. Anywhere I go with you would have to be during daylight hours and at least have Bruce there.” That definitely put a smile on his face. At least that was one less person Bruce had to worry about Natasha sleeping with. 

“That’s no way to treat the guy helping you pass Dr Pym’s class.” 

“You don’t think I could pass that class without you?” Natasha challenged. 

“I don’t think you’d even turn up to that class if you didn’t have me there.” 

“Tony’s got a point.” Bruce chimed in. “Him being there was the only reason I ever turned up to that class.” 

Natasha shrugged, offered some kind of grunt in agreement and drew her attention back to the game where Thor was yelling a sequence of numbers that just made no sense to him. Though as Natasha explained, he was apparently calling out a play that the rest of his team were to follow. 

Eventually, though apparently unsurprisingly as the team they were playing were known for having not won a single game in the entire football season so far, Thor’s team won by more than 20 points. A victory that apparently required much celebration according to Thor.

He’d come over to join their little group after he had changed, bringing with him Jane, Darcy and even his brother Loki. Which was a massive surprise because all he knew about Loki was that the guy was pretty much goth and didn’t leave his room except for when he had class. Though according to Jane, she and Thor had plotted to set Loki up with Darcy at the Halloween party and it had evidently gone pretty well. That was a pretty interesting pairing if you’d ask him. Darcy was much more outgoing than Loki and very bubbly. Though he figured the whole yin and yang thing must be true. 

After finding out that neither he or Steve’s friend Peggy knew the slightest thing about football, Thor had insisted that they all take to the field and learn some of the basics of the sport, much to Bruce’s dismay. He didn’t have a single athletic bone in his body and he really wasn’t looking forward to Natasha seeing that. 

“Go on, you should go join them.” Natasha encouraged with a nudge of his shoulder.

“I think I’m gonna save us all the embarrassment and say no.” 

“I’m sure you’re not that bad.” 

“No actually, I’m worse,” Bruce said with a chuckle, though he wasn’t exactly exaggerating. 

“Have you ever tried to play football?” Natasha asked and he knew from the look on her face that no matter his answer, he was gonna find himself on that football field. Bruce tentatively shook his head. “Well, then how do you know that you’re bad at this?” 

“I can draw a reasonable hypothesis based on previous data.” Bruce retorted; his fate might’ve been sealed but he wasn’t gonna go down without a fight.

“But you’ve never tried to play football. So your past data could be useless and your hypothesis null until you actually give it a go.” Bruce opened his mouth for another retort.

“Face it, Banner, you’re butt is winding up on that field whether you like it or not.” Natasha crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a sly smirk, one that he found incredibly sexy and couldn’t help but match. 

“Fine, but only if you come.” 

“No can do Banner. I may be strong, but if I get tackled by one of you guys and wind up breaking my leg Madame B will kill me.” 

“Ah right, the Nutcracker. Already got my ticket for that.” Natasha laughed, evidently thinking he was joking, but little did she know he’d brought his ticket the moment they went on sale two weeks ago. 

“Whatever dork. Go and show off that impressive throw of yours.”

“Less than impressive.” 

Bruce made his way down to the field, joining Thor and Tony in their little game of catch and throw. This he could handle, though his throws lacked the power required to reach them, forcing them to close the circle a bit more. He just hoped Natasha wasn’t watching. Lucky for him, she was engrossed in conversation with Steve. 

“Bruce, I’m sorry I didn’t get to see much of you at the Halloween party.” Thor apologised. “I’m afraid I had some personal matters to attend to.” Well, that was an understatement. Bruce had heard about him and Jane’s argument and the subsequent makeup from the other party-goers. 

“That’s alright. It was a good party.” Bruce caught the ball Tony threw his way and he’d wished that Natasha had seen that one. That ball was coming in quite fast. 

“There were plenty of beautiful women there. Did you get the opportunity to talk to any of them?” 

“Are you kidding?” Tony asked incredulously. “I introduced him to pretty much every chick there!” 

Yeah, but the one woman he did want to speak to had already left. “They weren’t really my type.” 

“Perhaps you should consider someone in our friendship group?” Thor suggested and Bruce nearly choked on his own breath. “Both Maria and Natasha are incredibly beautiful and single as far as my knowledge tells me.” 

“Beautiful doesn’t even cut it!” Tony exclaimed and he wasn’t wrong there. Natasha was breathtaking. “Those are easily two of the hottest women I’ve ever met.” 

“Tony, perhaps you shouldn’t objectify our friends so much.” Bruce was glad Thor had stepped in to say something because he was pretty sure his head would explode if he heard Tony make another crude remark about Natasha. 

“I think that’ll be a little weird.” Bruce turned to look back at where Natasha and Steve were sitting, having what looked to be a rather unpleasant conversation. He smiled and waved when Natasha looked over, leaving him unaware of the ball that Tony had just thrown his way which consequently hit him right in the head.

“Shit! Sorry, bro.” Tony said as Bruce got himself up and dusted himself off. He sent a quick thumbs up to Natasha and Steve before throwing the ball back to Tony. “I know Red’s hotness is distracting but you gotta stay focused.” Bruce glared at Tony, and his best friend held his hands up in surrender. “Last one, I swear.” 


	7. The Nutcracker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha has her first ballet recital.   
> Bucky is getting teased for feelings he's 64%sure he doesn't have.   
> Bruce seizes a moment.   
> Clint and Laura's trip away gets disrupted.   
> Tony is a pestering bugger but only because he cares.

“Again!” Madame yelled as she smacked her stick on the floor. 

Natasha sighed internally but didn’t dare let it show. They had been running over this sequence for the entirety of the rehearsal. Madame insisting that they do it over and over until she was satisfied. 

She could handle the intensive rehearsals, had been pushing her body to the limits for years now, but the others were evidently growing weary. And that weariness was beginning to affect their performance. Not ideal for the night before the recital. 

Natasha returned to her starting position, standing in first as she waited for the music to start. 

It was when one of the mice tripped and fell that she finally decided to call it. 

“That’s enough!” The room fell silent. All eyes on Madame wanting to see how she’d react to the sudden outburst. No one had dared disobey Madame – and the look on Madame’s face certainly confirmed that. “It’s enough,” Natasha said more calmly, standing her ground but trying to reflect the respect she holds for the older woman. 

Madame remained quiet for a few beats, staring into Natasha’s eyes – though it very much felt like her soul. Finally, she turned to the rest of the room, “Leave us.” Natasha took a few moments to still her now racing heart, not daring to move a muscle. She could very well have thrown away her scholarship all thanks to one little outburst. Once the last girl had left the room, Madame finally spoke. “You think me too harsh.” 

Natasha shook her head slightly. “You’ll break them.” 

“Only the breakable ones.” That had already been true for some of the girls. Madame’s rehearsals had been brutal from day one. Some girls hadn’t returned after that first rehearsal. One girl had run out halfway through a rehearsal in a fit of tears after having a thoroughly brutal assessment from Madame. The truly breakable ones had already been broken in Natasha’s eyes, but that didn’t mean those who remained were not at risk. “I need them to be perfect. Like marble” 

“They will be.” 

“I need _you_ to be perfect, Natashenka.” 

“I will be.” 

Madame eyed her for a moment before nodding towards the door for Natasha leave. 

She let out a slight sigh as she exited the studio. Perfect was certainly what she was going to be. She wouldn’t let herself be anything less that was for sure. 

“I’m just saying, Steve has been spending a lot of time with her and we barely even know her.” 

“Bucky, Steve is allowed to hang out with other people. And he doesn’t have to tell us about it.” 

“Is he bitching about Peggy again?” Natasha asked as she entered her room just in time to hear Bucky moaning about Steve’s friendship with Peggy… Again. “You do realise this is exactly what you did right?” 

“Yeah, but Maria and I are sleeping together. Steve and Peggy are just friends.” Bucky defended. 

“Are you sure about that?” 

Bucky gave Maria a pointed look. “Of course I’m sure. Steve would’ve told me.” 

“You really think your crush would tell his former crush that he’s sleeping with his new crush?” Natasha asked teasingly. She and Maria had been making jokes about Bucky having feelings for Steve ever since Bucky’s constant bitching started a few weeks ago. 

“For fuck sake, I do not have a crush on Steve!” 

“Aww, boo. You know I don’t mind.” Maria rubbed Bucky’s back in support. “Steve’s cute. I’d be down for him joining us.” 

Natasha let out a snort of laughter, much to Bucky’s dismay. 

“If you two are just gonna tease me all night can we at least do it over a beer?” 

After a promise that they would stop teasing, Bucky brought a few rounds and the beer was definitely helping Natasha to take her mind off of the performance. Bucky could probably see that there was something on her mind, but he knew better than to pry straight away. 

He waited until Maria went up for her round on the pool table before he attempted to find out what was bugging her. 

“So, are we gonna sit here in silence whilst your brain ticks at a thousand thoughts per second, or are you gonna tell me what’s up ?” 

A small smile tugged at the corner of Natasha’s mouth before quickly deflating. “I’m just thinking about this performance.” 

“Really? That’s it?” Bucky asked in disbelief. “Tasha, you’re like the greatest ballerina on campus. I don’t know how anyone makes money from ballet but if they can then you probably will. How can _you_ be bugging out about the performance?” 

“I’m not bugging out about _my_ performance, dipshit. I just...” God, she hated talking about this shit. But Bucky was her only option these days. 

Steve really did spend a lot of his time with Peggy – though good for him she thinks. Clint and Laura have enough on their plate with the baby due in a few weeks and they thoroughly deserve their holiday. And Bruce, well Bruce wasn’t really an option anymore. Ever since Steve told her that he likely had feelings for her and she had unknowingly advised him to ask her out, she’d been trying to avoid conversations with Bruce that went beyond _“How’re your classes going?”_ or _“The canteen’s serving mac ‘n’ cheese today.”_ She didn’t want to cut out talking to him altogether, she actually really liked Bruce. He had very quickly become one of her closest friends – which was exactly why she was avoiding long conversation with him. He hadn’t asked her out yet but if he ever did work up the courage to then she was not looking forward to having to let him down. That was one conversation that she definitely did not want to have. 

She tried not to dwell on the fact that he hadn’t tried to ask her out yet, or that it bugged her a little. She just focussed on counting her blessings that it hadn’t happened. 

But all that meant that the only person she could talk to right now was Bucky. Not that he was a bad option, she could certainly do a lot worse than hashing out her feelings to her oldest and best friend. 

Natasha ran her hand through her hair and let out a deep sigh. “I’ve just never done a performance and not had Clint and Laura… or Phil there.” Bucky looked at her expectantly. “Clint and Laura can’t make it. And at the time I thought I’d be okay with it but now…” 

“But now you’re bugging out a little knowing that no one will be there to see it?” 

Natasha let out a little snort. It sounded far more ridiculous out loud. “It’s stupid.” 

“It’s not stupid Tasha. It makes perfect sense. And if it means that much to you then I’ll come to watch and record it so Clint and Laura can see. Hell, I’ll Livestream it for them. When is it?” 

Natasha bit her lip and stared into her beer. “Tomorrow.” 

“Shit Tasha. Any chance of getting tickets still?” Natasha shook her head slightly. “Shit.”

“I’ll be fine. It was bound to happen eventually.” 

“You should’ve told me sooner,” Bucky said pointedly. 

“It’s fine. Just a few hours on stage and then it’s done. Anyway, you’ve got other things to worry about.” Bucky’s eyebrow scrunched in confusion. “Like how’re you’re gonna tell Steve that you have feelings for him.” 

“Seriously? I’m your attentive ear then once you’re done with me you go back to abusing me?” Bucky rolled his eyes at Natasha’s cunning grin. She really did love the nature of their friendship. One minute they’re teasing the shit out of the other, the next they’re having DMCs – though she preferred the teasing. “How many times do I have to say _I do not have a crush on Steve._ ” 

“As many times as it’ll take to actually make it true. Which is practically impossible.” 

“I don’t even know why you and Maria think that – and I’m a little weirded out by Maria thinking that.” 

“Let’s present the evidence shall we – “ 

“Oh for fucks – “ 

“ – Since you and Maria agreed to sleep with other people, how many other people has she slept with? 3. How many people have you slept with? None.” 

“That has nothing to do with Steve. And besides, you haven’t slept with anyone since Sam. Does that mean you have a crush on Sam?”

No, it certainly does not. “I’m not the one in the spotlight right now.” It’s not that she hasn’t had the opportunity, she just hasn’t really been feeling it at the moment. Between stressing out about the performance and stressing out about Bruce, she hadn’t really been in the mood for that type of socialising. “You constantly compliment his appearance – “ 

“I’m naturally flirty.” 

“ – All you do is talk about Steve and Peggy – .” 

“Because he hangs out with her all the time!” 

“ – not to mention the fact that you’ve had these feelings for Steve since the semester started but you’ve shoved them down and ignored them and now they’re bubbling up and you don’t know what to do about it because Steve has found a new friend.” Bucky looked at her a little stunned. “Am I right?” 

“No” Bucky grumbled, knowing full well that she was on to something. 

Natasha rolled her eyes at her friend. He knows she’s right; he just doesn’t want to admit it. But that’s fine. She’s still got a week or two before they go home for Christmas break, plenty of time to make Bucky realise the crush he has on his roommate. 

~*~

Bruce checked himself out in the mirror. Once, twice, and then a third time. He hadn’t understood why Tony had stocked his wardrobe with a new suit at first but now he found himself grateful for the addition. He’d never been to the ballet before but from what he understood they were formal events, spectators dressing themselves to the nines and the performers dressing even better, for the performance and afterwards. So he polished his good shoes, tried to tame his unruly curls and put on the slim fit suit Tony had supplied him with. 

He thought he looked okay; the confirmation of his image as passable came from Tony’s wolf whistle from the open bathroom door as he stood just before the threshold of the two rooms. “Where are you off to dressed like that?” 

“The ballet,” Bruce said sheepishly. 

“What, on a date?” 

“No not on a date.” 

“So you’re going to the ballet by yourself?” Tony asked with a raised eyebrow. “Well if you’re going to the ballet then you need a tie.” Tony disappeared off to his room and remerged holding a sleek black tie. “Here.” He held out the tie to him but after a few seconds of Bruce’s deliberating Tony tied the tie around his neck himself. 

“I don’t need a tie, Tony.” He attempted to pull away but Tony’s firm grasp around the ends of the tie held his neck in place. “Seriously. A tie is not necessary.”

“Show of hands, how many of us have been to a ballet?” Tony raised his own hand knowing full well that Bruce’s own hands would remain by his side. “Right, so I’ll just carry on then.” 

Tony finished tying the knot and smoothed down the lapels of his jacket. “So, how do I look?” Bruce asked arms spread out wide as if presenting himself in front of a judging panel. 

“You look good.” Tony flashed him a thousand-watt grin. “You look like there’s a girl.” 

“What? There’s not… there’s no girl.” Apart from the redhead that he had adored since the first day of term but he’s not exactly going to admit to that. Not when he knew she was way of his league. Tony gave him a look of disbelief. “Honestly, there’s no girl.”

“Right, and I don’t have a hot date with a busty blonde tonight.” Tony winked at him before he retreated back to his own room, but not before he called back over his shoulder, “If you need condoms, the top drawer of my bedside table.” 

“You’re despicable Tony,” Bruce yelled back. There was no point entertaining such foolish fantasies. He’d have to be deluded to think Natasha would ever be interested in a guy like him. 

Bruce shook off all thoughts of the possibility and started the short walk to the auditorium where the performance was being held. Quite the crowd had gathered outside the auditorium, the performance being a lot more popular than he had expected. Bruce was finally ushered to his seat where the programme awaited him, the name Natasha Romanoff plastered on the front page in all its glory. _As it should be_ , he thought to himself. 

He flicked through the programme, reading through the acts and noting when Natasha will appear on stage. He got so lost in reading the plot that he hadn’t realised the lights being turned down and the curtain being raised. He was mesmerised by the lights and the intricate detail of the stage design but when Natasha took the centre stage he was entirely captivated by her. By the fluidity of her movements, the grace in the extension of her arms. Her display both bold and beautiful; like she is. 

He bought a rose during the intermission. Ditched it before he returned to his seat. 

The second act was just as beguiling as the first and he found himself standing with the rest of the audience with the final curtain call. 

~*~

The performance went better than she thought it would. Which made her, even more, bummed out that Clint and Laura weren’t there to see it. 

She was eager to chat with them and let them know how it went. But first, she had to endure the crappy drinks reception, which she couldn’t even get served at because all the bar staff knew that she was a fresher, making the reception even more crappy. 

It was when she was surrounded by esteemed members of the audience all wanting to congratulate her on her performance that she spotted him. Stood off to the side, watching her from the distance. 

He’d scrubbed up very well. The fitted suit was doing wonders and the sleek black tie made him look more put together than she’d ever seen him. 

When he smiled at her, she couldn’t help but smile back. 

She also couldn’t help the warm feeling settling into her stomach as she sauntered over to him. She remembers him saying that he was coming to see the show, but she’d thought he meant that as a passing joke. She didn’t think he’d actually come to see it. 

She swiped his champagne glass and finished the contents in one swoop. Not once taking her eyes off him. 

If he was going to make his move, now was the chance. And the waiter that accidentally bumped her into him certainly helped make that decision for him. 

She was surprised that he went for action over words. But she was even more surprised to realise that she didn’t want the kiss to end. And she barely even believed the words “ _take me back to your place_ ” came from her own lips. 

But they must’ve done. Because one minute she’s got her tongue down his throat in the middle of a ballet reception and the next minute she’s stripping him down in his apartment room. 

~*~

He waited for her after. There was a small drinks reception for the cast and a few guests. He managed to convince the security guard that he was a member of the production team to gain access. He spotted Natasha across the room inside a circle of adoring fans looking more stunning now than she did on stage, her hair flowing in loose curls around her shoulders, the dress she had changed into shimmering in the light of the room. 

He felt like a creep, watching her from across the room. More so when she noticed him. But the small smile that she gave him as she excused herself from the group ratified his staring. 

“You came.” She swiped the glass of champagne he had forgotten he was holding, finishing the remnants of the glass. 

“I said I would.” He smiled at her sheepishly. “I did buy you a rose but I uh, thought it was a bit lame.”

“I tend to ditch them anyways.” She said with a shrug. “So what did you think?” 

“It was beautiful.” It’s the one word that’s stuck in his head since the beginning of the performance. A waiter carrying a tray of champagne flutes bumped Natasha, nudging her closer to him, close enough that he can smell her shampoo; the light fragrance of her perfume and he’s overwhelmed by her beauty. “You were beautiful.” He whispered, wanting to her to hear the words but not entirely brave enough for her to know they came from him. “You are beautiful.” She stared up into his eyes and he’s lost in the bright green orbs that look up at him. Whether it’s the intoxication of her beauty or the champagne that gave him the courage he’s not sure, but he leaned down, closing the small distance that remained between them. 

Her lips were softer than he imagined, but he doesn’t let himself indulge for too long. The gravity of his actions has him pulling back and ending the kiss almost as quickly as it started, leaving him to stumble around an apology that he just couldn’t seem to formulate. 

Natasha stopped any apology he attempted to make with her lips, her hand gripping the back of his neck keeping him in place. He felt her tongue slide against his chapped lips and he couldn’t help the moan that escaped him when he granted her tongue access, all knowledge of the public around them entirely forgotten.

They separate breathlessly, Natasha’s hand keeping him close when she says, “take me back to your place.” In what sounded like a mix between a question and demand and Bruce’s only answer is, _yes_. 

He gave her his jacket as they walked through the campus, the December chill catching up with them. They walk close together, sharing their body heat. He contemplated taking her hand in his own. Thought better of it and pocketed them instead. 

The walk back to his apartment is filled anticipation. He doesn’t know what to expect, hadn’t planned on this happening, so he doesn’t expect anything. Even as he unlocks his door and invites her in he doesn’t expect anything. 

Wants. Hopes. Desires. But doesn’t expect. 

“This place is a bit big isn’t it?” Natasha folded his jacket and set it on the back of his desk chair.

Bruce mentally chided himself for not tiding his room before he left. His aunt's teachings came to mind at that moment; _always keep a tidy home, you never know when you’ll have guests_. He wonders what his aunt would think of his use of her teachings. “Yeah, Tony doesn’t really do modest.” 

“I can tell.” Bruce kicked a pile of clothes under the bed and threw his abandoned food wrappers in the bin. “Does Tony fund everything for you?” 

Bruce didn’t know how to respond, lucky for him he didn’t have to because Natasha’s lips were pressed against his own the moment he turned to face her. Natasha pulled his tie loose and threw it in the vague direction of the chair where it just falls short and winds up on the floor. Tony wouldn’t be impressed. Actually no, Tony would approve. 

He had her pressed against the wall, burying his hands in her hair. She started undoing his shirt buttons with a hurried sense of urgency but he quickly took over, pulling the shirt over his head. He turned his attention to getting her dress off and was grateful that it’s a simple zip and doesn’t have any clasps to contend with. He’s a smart guy but his brain is preoccupied with other matters, like how his trousers have wound up around his ankles. 

He stepped out of them as she stepped out of her dress and he would love to marvel at the sight but he barely got a chance before her lips were back on his, hot and heavy and wanting. He felt a leg lift and he got a firm hold of her thigh to keep her in place. He pressed himself firmly against her, feeling the heat of her centre against him. 

Natasha broke away from his lips and pressed her mouth into the crook of his neck and Bruce seized the opportunity to fill his lungs. “Condom?” Natasha asked breathlessly. 

Shit. 

His head fell onto her shoulder as he realised this could only go so far. It was too good to be true. 

Natasha ran a hand through his hair, gripping the ends and using it to yank his head up. He was about to admit defeat when he remembered Tony’s crude comment from earlier, _bedside table, top draw_. 

Bruce dashed across the bathroom and into Tony’s room grabbing what he needed and returning back to see that Natasha had lost the bra and panties in the short time that he’d been gone. 

“I was really hoping I’d get to do that.” Bruce breathed out. 

“D’you want me to put them back on?” She asked with a raised eyebrow. Bruce shook his head, thought _never,_ as he kicked off his boxers. “Hey there big guy,” Natasha smirked at him as the blush crept up his neck. He barely had time to feel self-conscious as she wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him down on top of her. 

He usually falls asleep after but he tried to keep his eyes open for as long as he can, enjoying the view of Natasha sweaty and sated and riding the comedown of an orgasm, her head cushioned on his chest. To say he couldn’t believe his luck would be an understatement. Even when he could feel her body resting against his own he didn’t fully believe it to be real. He fought sleep a little longer, memorising the image, it might not be here when he wakes up. 

~*~

Clint felt a hard kick in his shin that quickly woke him from his deep sleep. This getaway had been exactly what he and Laura needed and the sheer amount of sleep they’d been getting done proved that. 

Sure it was a bit of a dump – the curtains were stained and the windows weren’t draft proof. But it had a very efficient little fireplace, plenty of blankets and a scenic view of the lake. He definitely would’ve gone for something a lot fancier had he known he was going to get the job promotion and even considered cancelling and booking somewhere nicer. But after a lecture from Laura about spending and saving and the costs of raising a kid, they’d decided to stick with the crappy cottage instead. Well, Laura decided. He just did as he was told. 

Still, it was exactly the kind of stress-free getaway that the two of them needed. 

Clint felt another hard kick in his shin and quickly turned on the bedside lamp to see what was going on.

“What was that for?” 

_“Well, two things have possibly happened.”_ Laura signed. _“Either you’ve wet the bed. Or my water’s broken.”_

Clint suddenly noticed the sheets were wet and his pyjama bottoms were distinctly dry. “Fuck.” For the first time in his life, he really did wished he’d wet himself. Fuck. This wasn’t supposed to happen for at least 3 more weeks. They hadn’t prepared for this in any way. Shit, they hadn’t even finished buying all the baby stuff. Shit. “Okay, what do we do?” 

_“First you put your hearing aids in because if I have to sign another fucking word I might-“_

“Yep. Okay. Calm down.” Laura gave him a stern look and another hard kick to the shin. “Okay so _calm down_ is maybe not the right words to say to a woman in labour. Hearing aids going in.” Clint scrambled for his aids and quickly fitted them in his ears. “Okay now what?” 

“Get the car keys, find the nearest hospital and get me there as quick as you can.” Yep, that sounded like as good a plan as any. “And text Nat.” 

“On it. Shit Laura, we’re having a baby.” Clint said with excitement and a hint of panic, but mainly excitement. 

“Yes, we’re having a baby. Now get a fucking move on before we wind up having the baby in this shithole.” 

“You said you like it.” 

“Clint,” Laura warned sternly.

“You said it has character.” 

“Clint.” A slipper came flying past his head that he just managed to dodge. 

“Okay okay, I’m getting a move on.” 

~*~

She knows she should leave. The sex was great but the consequences that will arise when he wakes won’t be. Euphoria is one thing, awkward conversations another. 

But she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t enjoying herself right now. Listening to his heartbeat slow to a normal pace under her ear. Hugging her naked body to his. She just can’t bring herself to leave and allows his heartbeat to lull her into sleep instead.

She wakes before him. Considers making a quick exit whilst she can unnoticed, but when she heads to the bathroom wearing the shirt that still means like him, she realises that all she wants to do is crawl back beside him. 

Lucky for her, he’s awake by the time she comes out, and they both seem to have the same idea of how to spend the morning. 

When he questions how this happened she diverts him with a joke, but deep down she’s not entirely sure herself. It may have had something to do with the fact that she was feeling vulnerable and needed the companionship. Or because of how good he looked in that suit. Or maybe it was because she hadn’t spent the last few weeks dreading him asking her out knowing she’d have to turn him down, maybe it was because she knew she’d say yes. 

Because as much as she wants to believe that she doesn’t have feelings for Bruce, as much as she likes to tell herself and everyone else around that she’s not interested in a relationship anytime soon, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. Well, maybe she didn't want a relationship with Bruce, she'd definitely take the sex and cuddling again - whatever shaped package that came in.

He makes her laugh like no other, makes it easy for her to talk about things she never usually would and ultimately, he understands her – something no one other than Clint has been able to do. She’d just been either too blind or too far in denial to realise it. God Bucky would find that hilarious. 

~*~

He’s not surprised to find her gone when he woke, had expected her to come to her senses and make a mad dash for the exit. He didn’t expect to see her exit the bathroom wearing nothing but his shirt from last night, her red curls sleep mussed but no less perfect. He couldn’t help but smile as he saw her. 

“Good morning.” She sauntered back over to him leaning down for a slow, languid kiss. 

Bruce couldn’t resist and encircled her in his arms pulling her back down to the bed, still not believing she’s really here. 

“I thought you’d be gone.” He admitted his insecurities to her, his filter not at its best so early in the morning. 

“I was gonna slip out last night but you were so cosy.” She gave him a playful smirk as she settled back into his bed, half on top of him. 

“Oh, so you’re just using me for comfort?” 

“Amongst other things.” 

“I still can’t really work out how this happened.” He still wonders if this is just a dream that he’ll soon awake from, he hoped not.

Natasha ran a hand through his hair, the physical contact confirming her presence. “I’m sure that genius brain of yours can figure it out, Doc.” She pulled his head back and crashed her lips to his own. 

He smiled against her lips. “I’m not a doctor yet.” 

The moment is interrupted by a loud voice and someone entering his room. “Bruce, let me tell you about a busty blonde called Bernice.” Tony stopped at the door as he finally noticed that Bruce was not alone and he couldn’t help but feel like he’s 16 again and his aunt had just discovered the condoms in his room. “I knew there was a girl!” Tony said, accusation clear in his voice. 

“Tony, you’re supposed to knock!” Bruce yelled. 

Natasha quickly gathered her things from the floor and exited to the bathroom, mumbling something about this being her queue to leave. 

“You’re supposed to put a sock on the door.” 

Bruce doubted a sock would deter him. “Pass me my trousers.” 

“You didn’t say Red was the girl.” Tony waggled his eyebrows at him. 

“Can you not?” Natasha exited the bathroom wearing her dress from last night and managing to look just as beautiful. Bruce followed her to the door, unsure of what to do but when Natasha gave him a slow kiss goodbye he could feel his confidence kick back in. “I’ll uh I’ll text you later.” With one last kiss goodbye, Bruce shut the door and turned to see Tony grinning from ear-to-ear. “No!”

“Ah come on. You gotta give me details.” 

“No Tony.” Bruce spun him around and pushed him towards the door. 

“Just one question,” Tony whined. 

“Goodbye Tony.” 

~*~ 

Natasha returned to her own apartment, mildly annoyed, very frustrated, and incredibly confused. 

“Same dress as the night before? Someone got laid last night.” Bucky said with a wink as soon as she entered the room. 

“Hmm, yeah.” Natasha barely glanced up at him and Maria. Her phone battery had died since last night and she wanted to make sure it was charged for when Bruce did text. God, she felt like a schoolgirl again. 

“Oo tell us everything!” Maria mock squealed. “What’s his name? Do we know him?”

“What does it matter, we won't ever meet him. Was he any good?” Bucky asked, evidently having not learnt his lesson from the last time he asked such a question. 

Natasha barely registered the questioning. As soon as her phone switched on she had a sudden flurry of messages from Clint. 

“I need a ride to the train station.” 

~*~

“Are you seriously not gonna tell me anything?” Tony asked for what he was certain was the 150th time. 

He’d been trying to get information out of his best bud ever since he burst into his room this morning and found him in bed with Natasha. Making out. Naked. And for some reason – being the ever so annoying prude that he was – Bruce was giving him nothing.

“Jheeze Tony, can you stop asking about it already. I’m not telling you anything.” 

“Yeah see that’s not gonna fly with me bud. That’s going against the bro code.” 

“What bro code?” Bruce asked in exasperation. Tony could sense he was wearing him down. Just as few more minutes away from sweet sweet redheaded gossip. 

“I believe it’s subsection 19 paragraph 8 part c that states; should a bro who has not had sex for a total of two weeks or more successfully have intercourse with a woman who is undoubtedly one of the hottest women on campus he must proceed to tell his bro everything once said woman has left.” 

“Err Mr Stark?” Peter interrupted from his desk in the corner, almost giving Tony a full-on heart attack. He’d completely forgotten Peter was in the lab. “Should I go?” 

“No Pete, stay. In fact, why don’t you weigh in on this.” Tony smirked at Bruce. “If one of your mates slept with a super-hot chick, wouldn’t you expected him to tell you everything about it? Particularly parts about what kind of freaky shit she likes in bed.” 

“Peter, don’t answer that!”

“No, Peter. Do.” 

“Err Mr Stark, I’m only fifteen.” Tony turned a confused look to Peter. “Most of my friends barely even know how to speak to a girl.” Oh dear god, was everyone around him a lost soul? Right Bruce first, then he’ll fix Peter’s inability to speak to the opposite sex. 

“I’m just saying, you can’t have me walk in on you and the world’s sexiest redhead and expect me not to be curious about how it happened, when it started happening and how long it will continue to happen for.” 

“That was the first time it happened Tony.” Bruce finally relented. “And we’re gonna have to have a serious conversation about you knocking.” 

“Really?” Tony asked in complete shock. “Because that kiss I saw didn’t look like it was a first-time thing.” In fact, it very much looked like the type of kiss you’d give someone you were dating. Definitely not a one-night stand. “So you’re telling me you went to the ballet, watched some hot women twirl around on stage and then managed to sleep with one of them? And that one just do happened to be Natasha?” 

“God, can you maybe not make it sound so crude. It’s not like I went there planning to sleep with just anyone.” 

“So you were planning to sleep with red? You like her don’t you ?” 

“That’s not what I said, Tony – “ 

“No no no, you definitely like her. Kid, he likes her doesn’t he?” 

Bruce groaned as he dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. 

“Sorry Mr Banner, but it doesn’t seem like you like her,” Peter said sheepishly. 

Bruce let out a loud sigh. “Fine, I like her.” 

“Ah-ha! I knew it!” Tony snapped his fingers. Really he had no idea about his best buds feelings towards the feisty redhead. “So you bought tickets to the ballet, sought her out and then banged her.” 

“No Tony. I went to support a friend in their show, who I happened to like. I took a shot and kissed her and then she led the way with the rest.” 

“Ah, so red sought _you_ out, banged _you_ , ditched, and now you’re moping around because she hasn’t responded to your text?” 

“It’s only been a couple hours.” 

“So you have texted her. Explains why you keep checking your phone.” Tony sauntered over to his best bud and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Rookie error my friend. You always leave it a day or two if you’re gonna be the first one to text. Or you just don’t text first. That’s one’s for you too, kid.” Tony yelled back to Peter, who was trying to busy himself with some equations. 

“Tony she’s not just some women that I slept with and am sort of interested in. I really like her.” 

Tony was at a loss for things to say. He’d never been good with relationship advice – mainly because the longest relationship he’d ever been in was about 4 ½ weeks and calling that a relationship was a bit of a stretch.

When Bruce first started dating Betty he didn’t have a clue what advice to give his best bud. Luckily for him, Betty had been the one to make all the moves and all Bruce had to do was follow her lead. 

When they broke up, the best Tony could do was ensure that there was a solid supply of alcohol available to Bruce 24/7 which seemed to do the trick. But now with Natasha, not only is he only just learning of these feelings after the two had already slept together, but he knew full well that his best friend had fallen for a woman who had become known for her opposition to relationships. Which could only really result in heartbreak for his best friend. 

“Tony can we just drop this,” Bruce said with one last sigh. “I think I’ve cracked the coding error for Ultron’s movement but I need you to finish with the wiring on his arm before I can update the software.” 

Tony considered his friend for a moment. He could push the subject further but ultimately he was way out of his comfort zone. Probably best to crack on with the things he’s good at – Science. 

“Sure thing bud. Hey kid, come over here and lift this arm will ya.” 

“Hey, Mr Stark. Have you ever consider the impact of naming this robot after the God of War?” Tony looked at Peter, then to Bruce who merely offered a smirk and a shrug, and then back to Peter again. “Well, it’s just that Ultron is meant to be a symbol of the future of green energy right. A symbol of peace and sustainability.” Tony did not like where this was going. “And we know about the potential military applications and all that… But you have named it after a God of War and I just kinda think you might be tempting the military into seizing and adopting it for more sinister purposes.” 

“Almost sounds like someone should’ve tried to talk you against the name in the first place,” Bruce said smugly.

“Well, what was I supposed to call it?” 

“How about not a variant of Mars Ultra?” 

“How about Jarvis then?” Tony said with an air of frustration. It was bad enough having Bruce and his constant objections to his AI, but now that he and the kid were ganging up on him, it was close to unbearable. 

“You’re gonna name your AI after your family butler?” 

“No. It stands for.” Tony racked his brain for what it could possibly stand for. “Just A Rather Intelligent System.” 

“Really?” 

“No, you know what, fuck you all. Ultron is staying named Ultron and that’s it. Now we either get back to the science or I start asking questions about what Natasha’s like in bed.” Bruce held up both hands in surrender, just as Tony expected. “Kid, this arm isn’t gonna hold itself.” 

Tony had to admit, he did quite like the days where the three of them worked together in the lab. Sure it was a pain in the ass when both Peter and Bruce started bitching about Ultron. But once you got past that and into the nitty-gritty science of it all, it made for a pretty fun time. 

Not to mention it also helped take Bruce’s mind off of the whole Natasha situation. So much so that Bruce barely even noticed when his phone finally did buzz with a text from the redhead. 

Tony waited until the early hours of the morning, when Happy had taken Peter home for the day and Bruce had fallen asleep at his desk to seize his opportunity to check the message – you have to prepare for all potential scenarios and if his science bro was about to have his heart ripped out of his chest, Tony needed to know. And really, with a passcode of 1234, Bruce was sort of asking for it. Honestly, the man was a literal genius and yet he couldn’t come up with a better password. 

Tony braced himself for the potential rejection but was thoroughly surprised to see what Natasha had sent: 

**11:07 Bruce:** _Last night was great. Sorry about Tony._

**23:42 Natasha:** *Picture of Natasha holding a very tiny, very pink baby swaddled in a blue blanket*

**23:42 Natasha:** _Sorry for the late response. Seems we’ve had an early addition to the family. This is Cooper :)  
_

**23:45 Natasha:** _Enjoyed last night. Shame Tony interrupted this morning but I’m sure we can make up for that another time ;)  
_

Well, would you look at that? Sure he may have been an accidental cockblock earlier, but he can definitely take credit for Bruce getting laid next time. You’re welcome bud.


	8. My feelings confuse me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria is done with Bucky's Bullshit.  
> Steve finally takes his chance.  
> Bucky's very confused about his feelings  
> Tony shares the tea.  
> Thor and Jane think they're professional matchmakers.

Maria let out one last moan of pleasure as they both found their release. She collapsed on top of Bucky, desperately trying to fill her lungs with air. She and Bucky might not sleep with each other as much as they did before their new Halloween agreement, but whenever they did, she was instantly reminded of why they began this little agreement in the first place. 

“Are you two decent?” Steve’s voice at the door completely disrupted her enjoyment of the afterglow. 

“Ah, shit, perfect timing as always,” Bucky whispered as he scrambled for his jeans. “Just a sec Steve.”

“At least he knocked this time” Maria retrieved her bra from where it was laced over Bucky’s laptop. She flung on her top and gave Bucky a check over before opening the door. “Hey, Steve, what’s up?” 

“Well, this room definitely doesn’t smell like sex.” Steve mocked as he entered the room. “Sorry to interrupt.” 

“Nah, you’re good. We were done.” Steve began peeling off his shirt to change into a new one and Maria couldn’t help but stare at his beautifully defined abs. Steve really was a specimen. And it seemed someone else was having similar thoughts. Bucky was definitely staring too. That was until he noticed her notice him staring and he quickly averted his gaze. “Er, Steve, fancy hanging out?” 

“Yeah, Bucky and I were gonna go grab a drink. Wanna join?” 

“Ah, thanks but I’m actually meeting Peggy in about 30 minutes.” Steve had stepped out of his jeans to switch into a pair of chinos. Did this guy not realise what effect he was having on the two people in this room right now? “Can I take a rain check?” 

“Why am I not surprised?” Bucky muttered under his breath.

“What was that?” 

“All you do is hang out with Peggy. Maybe fancy hanging out with your other friends from time to time?” 

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Steve demanded. 

“Every single day you hang out with Peggy. You have other friends you know, maybe you should acknowledge them from time to time instead of hanging out with some girl all the time.” 

“What so it’s alright for you to hang around with Maria all the time but the moment I find a friend to hang out with there’s suddenly a problem?” 

“Maybe everyone should just cool off for a bit.” Maria tried to intervene. Things had escalated pretty quickly and she’s not even sure how. “Before someone says something they don’t mean.” 

“Yeah because I actually had a shot with her.” Bucky retorted.

“Like that.” Maria had never seen Steve this angry before. Hell, she’d never seen Steve angry at all. Nothing ever seemed to bother him but it looks like this has actually struck a nerve. This was not good. “Bucky, maybe you should apologise.” 

“You don’t even have the guts to ask her out. Like fucking hell Steve, get a grip!” 

“Why don’t  _ you _ get a grip, Buck. Sorry that I want to spend time with the girl I like and not you.”

“Oh so now you grow so balls and can say out loud that you like someone? Why don’t you hurry up and ask her out so she can reject you and we can have our friend back?” Bucky spat out. And from the look on his face, he instantly regretted it. Steve was stunned into silence, and admittedly, so was she. “I didn’t mean that.” Bucky tried to instantly take back his venomous words.

“You know what? Fuck you.” Steve turned and stormed out of the room. Slamming the door shut on his way out. 

Maria could not believe that turn of events. It only took a few seconds for that to escalate way out of control and Maria knew exactly why it did. 

“Nice going, Bucky.” 

“Oh don’t you start.” 

“No, you know what? I am gonna start.” Maria turned to face him. Bucky was being a complete dick and he needed to hear this. “That was totally uncalled for and you know it.” 

“Well someone needed to tell him he was being an asshole and you and Tasha sure as hell wasn’t gonna do it.” He defended. 

“Well, you’re being an asshole now. So I guess I’ll take up the opportunity to tell you.” Maria said furiously. She’d frankly had enough of Bucky’s shit lately and today was the tip of the iceberg. “You spend all your time bitching about how much time Steve spends with Peggy and have the nerve to mock him for only just admitting to us that he likes the girl when you’re too chicken shit to even admit to yourself that you like Steve, let alone us.” 

“For the love of-“ Bucky punched the wall beside him in fury. Not enough to put his fist through it, but enough to leave a dent. “Will you stop fucking saying that!” 

Maria was stunned looking between Bucky, his fist, and the fist-shaped dent. She quickly regained herself after the initial shock. “Feel better?” Bucky’s jaw tightened. “Good, because you need to hear this. That rage that you’re feeling, it’s called jealousy. And you’re gonna keep feeling it because guess what? Steve is allowed to hang out with whoever the fuck he wants to hang out with for however long he wants to hang out them.” Maria kept her voice calm as she watched the anger rise up and through Bucky again, his fists clenching, jaw tightening, but he really did need to hear what she had to say next. “And until you decide to tell him how you feel, it’s gonna stay that way.” 

“What are you even still doing here?” 

“Excuse me?” 

“I don’t know what you’re still doing here,” Bucky spoke calmly but Maria could still see the anger on his face, clear as day. “You came, we finished, we’re done for the night, aren’t we? See you when my turn comes back around after, what? The third rotation?” 

“Fuck you Bucky.” Maria grabs her jacket from Bucky’s chair and flings it on as she makes for the door. “I hope your fist doesn’t hurt too much. You and it are gonna become very acquainted with one another ‘cause we’re done.” 

~*~

Steve was fuming. He’s pretty sure he’d never been this angry in his entire life. Bucky had no right to be such an asshole. He definitely didn’t have a right to try and control who he spent his time with or for how long. 

He was allowed to hang out with anyone he wanted and if he wanted to hang out with Peggy all the time, well he was going to do just that. And there wasn’t a damn thing Bucky or anyone could do to stop that. 

Well, maybe Peggy. But he was relatively sure that she wasn’t going to any time soon. They had met up pretty much every night so far, so long as he didn’t have training or a game. And even then she’d usually come along to watch. They’d often just waste the time away together, talking about everything and nothing at all and Steve thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. 

Steve made his way through the campus grounds about to head past the quad when he spotted Bruce sat by the fountain reading a book as he often does. Only this time he wasn't accompanied by Natasha who could usually be spotted sat with the scientist. 

“Hey, no Natasha tonight?” Steve called out as he neared the fountain. 

Bruce offered him a confused look. “Huh?” 

“Nat, she’s usually out here with you.” 

“She went home a couple days ago.” 

“Huh?” It was Steve’s turn to offer a confused look. 

“Her brother and his wife had their baby,” Bruce explained. “It was sorta unexpected. Nat said he wasn’t due for another few weeks.” Bruce took out his phone and showed Steve a picture of Natasha holding an impossibly tiny baby swaddled in blue blankets. “Cooper.” 

Steve couldn’t help but melt at the sight. Though he was a little confused as to why Nat had sent Bruce that pic. Sure they were friends and all but surely Steve would come higher up in the ranking of ‘people to send a pic of me holding my newly born nephew’. Though then again, he had been so preoccupied with Peggy he hadn’t even realised she’d been gone for the past few days. 

“Maybe I have been a shitty friend,” Steve said quietly to himself. 

“What was that?” 

Steve sighed and ran a hand through his short blonde hair. “Nothing”

“Your advice worked by the way,” Bruce said, cutting into Steve’s thoughts. “From the football game.” Bruce clarifies. “About Natasha.” Steve’s brow furrows a little in confusion. “Ask Natasha out or kiss her.” 

“Right. Yeah, I remember.” Natasha’s own advice worked on her, who woulda thought. “So you asked her out?” 

“I sorta accidentally went for the second option.” Bruce let out a nervous chuckle as he scratched at the hairs at the back of his neck. “And she was into it. Like  _ really _ into it.” 

This would explain the texts. Steve can’t say that he was entirely surprised. Natasha may keep everything locked away and out of sight but even she couldn’t hide the smile and laughter that irradiated from her whenever she was with Bruce. He really was happy for her. And for Bruce too of course. 

“Well, congrats man.” Steve patted Bruce on the back. “So d’you think it was just a one-time thing or…?” 

Bruce shrugged, a little unsure of himself. “Honestly, I don’t know. She said something to me the morning after that made me think maybe,” 

Morning after? Why would they’ve seen each other the morning after if they just kis…  _ oooooh.  _ They slept together. Wow. Natasha really was  _ really  _ into the kiss. Steve snapped himself away from his thoughts to focus on what the other guy was saying. 

“And we’ve been texting back and forth since. So that makes me think maybe. But then you never can tell with Nat.” 

Well, ain’t that the truth. “I’m sure she wouldn’t jeopardise one of her closest friendships for a one-night stand.” 

“I guess we’ll see,” Bruce said with a shrug. “Well, now that you know your advice works, you gonna take it?” 

Steve thought about it for a moment. But his mind was made up when he saw Peggy across the quad. She wasn’t wearing anything particularly special. Nothing form-fitting or figuring hugging. In fact, she was wrapped up warm, prioritising keeping the chill away as opposed to anything else. But yet she still managed to take his breath away. 

“Yeah. I just might.” Steve finally breathed out. “I gotta go.” Steve made his way over towards Peggy, mouth going a little dry as his brain froze a little at the sight of her. “Hey,” He called out as they got nearer to each other. “It’s a bit cold out here. Fancy going somewhere warmer?” 

“Why Steven, buy a girl a drink first.” Peggy gushed. 

Steve could feel the warmth rising in his cheeks and the tip of his ears. “I mean the café. For coffee.” He blurted out, perhaps a bit too quickly. 

“I’m messing.” Peggy slapped him on the arm playfully. “Lead the way, Mr Rogers.” 

Steve led them to a quiet little café just outside the campus grounds. Natasha had brought him here after one of their runs and introduced him to the world of independent coffee shops. Though it confused him to no end why the redhead would seek out independent coffee shops who make coffee with organic Fairtrade beans when she dumps so much sugar in it that’s all you can taste. That woman was one hell of an enigma. Bruce had his work cut out for him. 

Steve ordered for the two of them; Earl Grey tea for Peggy and a cappuccino for himself. He’s usually more of a vanilla latte guy but his coffee order was probably the one thing about him that he was intent on hiding from Peggy. 

Their conversation was light, sticking to the subject of course load and last-minute assignments that they had to do. Well, that he had to do. Peggy had all of her assignments handed in a week ago, well before the deadline. Steve, on the other hand, had handed in everything except for his art project which was due in just a few days and he hadn’t even started. The brief was pretty vague. They could use whatever tools they wanted, and whatever style they wanted but the piece had to convey “passion”. He had absolutely no clue what to do. 

Peggy tried to help him with ideas but he just couldn't find himself able to focus on his art at the moment. His mind just kept replaying his argument with Bucky. He and Bucky had never even had so much of a disagreement before – well, not if you include trashing each other’s soccer team – and yet today everything seemed to just blow up so fast without any prior notice. 

Bucky maybe had a point about Steve neglecting his friends, but he was a real ass about Peggy and there was no excuse for that. 

Peggy nudged his knee with her own from where she sat opposite him, drawing him out of his thoughts. 

“Hey, I lost you there for a moment.” She offered him a sympathetic smile. “Everything okay?” 

“I got into it really bad with Bucky earlier on.” Steve sighed. “I guess it’s just still playing on my mind a little.” 

“What about?” 

Steve sighed. “You.” Peggy’s brows knitted together in confusion causing Steve to sigh again. “Bucky doesn’t like that I hang out with you a lot.” Steve shook his head from side to side, still in disbelief about the absurdity of it all. “Surely I’m allowed to hang out with whoever I like, right?” Steve asked around a sip of his cappuccino. Peggy nodded, but added nothing further, allowing Steve to continue with his much-needed rant. “Who the hell does Bucky think he is? He doesn’t get to control who I hang out with. And he definitely doesn’t get to stop me from hanging out with someone I really like hanging out with!” Steve’s cheeks instantly went red. Oops. He did not mean to say that last bit out loud. Shit. “I. I mean –“ He fiddled with his coffee cup, not daring to look at Peggy. 

A small smile tugged at the corner of Peggy’s lips. “I like hanging out with you too Steve.” 

“Really?” Steve looked up to see the nod and smile Peggy was giving him. He couldn’t help but return it. 

“Really.” 

Steve’s face beamed. He couldn’t help it. He was so chuffed to know that Peggy actually enjoyed spending time with him. His smile stayed throughout the remainder of their time in the coffee shop. And even as they walked back towards Peggy’s dorm. 

They spent a few more minutes chatting away whilst they were stood outside the dorm building. And all the while Steve thought about his conversation with Bruce earlier. If Bruce could work up the courage to make a move on Natasha, surely he could too. 

As he pulled back from their hug goodbye, Steve found himself staring at Peggy’s glossy lips. 

They hovered for a while in a loose embrace until Steve finally worked up the courage. “I’d really like to kiss you right now.” Well, he maybe wasn’t a _ s _ brave as Bruce. 

“I’d really like that too.” 

Oh god. This was actually about to happen. Steve’s heart was pounding in his ears and he could feel the heat in his face. 

He blocked that all out as he leaned his head down, drawing their lips closer. He hovered with their lips just centimetres apart. Their warm breath mingling in the cold December air. 

Peggy closed the last bit of distance remaining between them, bringing their lips together.

Steve could feel her smiling against his lips, and he couldn’t help but return it. 

Peggy was still smiling as they pulled away from one another. “I’ve been waiting a bloody long time for you to do that Steve Rogers.” 

Steve let out a breathy chuckle. “How long?”

“Since that God-awful Halloween party.” 

Steve let out another laugh as he leaned in again to give her another kiss. He’d been waiting since that God-awful Halloween party too. 

~*~

Bucky’s mind was reeling. He was absolutely fuming. At Steve, at Maria, but most of all, at himself. He knew he had no right to be mad at Steve, and he certainly had no right to be mad at Maria. He just didn’t know what it was about Steve and Peggy hanging out that got him so frustrated. 

Steve hung out with Natasha a lot too. Maybe not as much as he did with Peggy, but they had a regularly scheduled gym session once a week and they regularly went running together. Steve even hung out with Tony quite often. But that didn’t bother him in the slightest, so why the hell did Steve hanging out with Peggy so much bother him? 

Natasha and Maria were pretty certain that he had feelings for Steve, but surely he’d be the expert on who he had a crush on, right? 

Bucky shook off his thoughts, shrugged on his jacket and grabbed his beanie from his drawer. He needed a drink, and sure it may be cliché, but it looked like he’d be drinking on his own. 

He made his way over to the dingey campus bar, prepared to spend the remainder of his evening drinking by himself and trying to work out why he was such an asshole. 

Bucky sighed as he pushed through the bar doors, feet sticking to the carpet and making a sickly squelching noise in certain places. He walked up the bar, eyeing the poor selection of beers on tap. Deciding that he needed something stronger, Bucky ordered a whisky on the rocks and sat at the bar staring into his glass as he realised how much he missed his best friend. Natasha would no doubt agree that he was being a dick but at least he’d have someone to sit and drink with him. She’d never turn down a drink if he was buying, no matter how much of an ass he was being. 

He was about halfway through his whisky when a large hand clasped around his shoulder. 

“James! How lovely to see you.” Thor engulfed him into a hug, the smell of tequila emanating from his breath. “You must come join us; we’re celebrating.” 

Bucky looked over to see Tony and Jane sat at a table not far from the bar, their table littered with several empty shot and pint glasses. 

“Thanks, Thor, but I’m not really in a celebratory mood.” 

“Please, I insist you must join us. Term is as good as over, and so too is the footballing season. We have much to be merry about.” Bucky looked hesitant. “Tony and I are buying.” 

Bucky gave him half a smile. “Well, I guess I can’t really turn down an offer like that now can I?” 

Bucky helped Thor bring the drinks back to the table. Thor had bought four pints of beer and several shots of tequila. They had evidently been a few rounds in already as their table also housed the bars stock of sliced limes and a saltshaker. 

“We have another friend to join our celebrations,” Thor announced as they neared the table.

“Hope you don’t mind me crashing the party,” Bucky said as he took a seat between Tony and Jane. 

“Of course not Buckeroo, the more the merrier,” Tony said as he dished out the first round of shots, and lime slices then licked the back of his hand before pouring salt onto it and passing the shaker round. Once the rest had followed suit, Tony raised his shot glass for a toast. “To another term done!” 

The others all cheered to that, then licked the salt off their hands, downed the shot and sucked on the lime. Bucky had developed a pretty good tolerance to alcohol over that last year or two, but tequila shots still managed to make him regret life entirely. Luckily, thanks to Natasha’s incessant taunting, he’d gotten pretty good at controlling his gag reflex, though that didn’t mean that he didn’t feel the need to suck on the lime until every drop of juice gone. 

He wasn’t sure if he was up to the task of drinking with these guys. They still had several more shots in front of them and this was only the first round he’d joined. But then again, he’d very much rather not be sober right now. 

With that in mind, Bucky got the process started again and raised his shot glass.

“Well, someone knows how to party,” Tony commented, but raised his shot glass anyway. “What’re we toasting to bud?” 

“To making new friends.” Bucky’s toast was met with a series of boos from the other three. “What?” he asked confused. 

“That’s lame. Pick a better toast.” Jane demanded.

“Well, what d’you want me to say? To learning new things?” 

“Booorrriiing” Tony hollered. 

“Alright, fine. To the end of what’s turned out to be a pretty shitty term.” Bucky said angrily, before downing his tequila, this time forgoing the salt and lime. The alcohol burned its way down his throat and he immediately reached for his beer to numb the burn. 

“Jheeze, invite a guy for a laugh and he suddenly gets all touchy.” 

“Leave him alone Tony,” Jane said as she shot Tony a glare from across the table. “What’s up Bucky?” 

Bucky let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry. I really don’t want to ruin your celebrations-“ 

“Nonsense,” Thor interjected. “If something is bothering you, then you must certainly share with us. What friends would we be if we didn’t listen to the woes of our comrade.” 

“Listen to the… do you hear yourself when you speak?” Tony asked incredulously. “Go on then. Spit it out. What’s got you moping around here looking like someone’s taken a crap in your Doc Martins.” 

Bucky ran a hand through his hair as he began to recant the story of what happened. “So basically, I got into it really bad with Steve. And was a dick to Maria. And now my roommate hates me, my casual fling has been called off and I’m pretty sure I’ve lost the security deposit on my room.” 

“Wait, so Maria’s single now?” Tony asked. “Hey!” he said as Jane flung a lime slice at him. 

“Is that the only thing that’s ever on your brain?” 

“Pretty much,” Tony affirmed. 

“Maria always was single. We were just casual. Never exclusive or anything.” 

“So you don’t mind if I ask her out?” Jane flung another lime slice at Tony. “What?” 

“He’s just ended things with her.” 

“It’s fine. I’m not exactly torn up about it. Like yeah, it was great but it’s not like I was invested or anything.” In truth, Bucky was pretty sure he’d checked out of his little arrangement with Maria a while ago. Their fling ending was probably the one good thing to come out of tonight. “So your free to have a stab at her I guess. Though I gotta say, I don’t think she’s interested.” 

“Ah but I’ve never actually tried. Now that you too aren’t knocking boots, there’s nothing to hold me back.” 

“So, your problem with Steve is that he hangs out with Peggy too often?” Thor asked. Bucky nodded, recoiling a little hearing how stupid it actually sounded. “I think Steve has quite the thing for Peggy.” 

“Well, that’s glaringly obvious. You can practically hear the guy's heart flutter when he sees her.” Jane added. “And I’m pretty sure she likes him too.” 

“Really?” Bucky asked, not actually intending for the question to leave his lips. 

“Yeah, for sure. They’re pretty cute together actually.” 

Bucky’s felt his stomach knot up. He’d never even entertained the idea of Peggy liking, Steve, back, but now that thought had entered his mind, well he didn’t like that one bit. 

His head was all over the place and his stomach felt like it’d dropped to the floor. And not just from the tequila. He needed to get some fresh air. 

“I’ve got to get going.” Bucky shot up from the table, abruptly. “Thanks for the drinks. I’ll get a round next time.” Bucky gathered his jacket and hat and left the group. 

“Weird.” He heard Tony say just as he was edging out of earshot. “Anyway, guess who I caught Bruce in bed with the other day.” 

~*~ 

“Who?” Thor asked in anticipation. As far as he knew, Bruce hadn’t slept with anyone since Betty, so this really was some interesting news. 

“Tony, should you really be telling us this?” Jane asked, with a rather disapproving look.

“Hey, if I was Bruce, I’d be telling every person I knew.” 

“Yes but Bruce isn’t a deplorable man like yourself.”

Thor laughed and Tony shook off the insult. “I walked in on him and Natasha a few days ago.” Thor and Jane looked at each other with wide grins. They clinked their beer glasses in celebration. They had set their plan into motion a few weeks ago but hadn’t really been keeping an eye on how things were going between the pair. “Sorry, am I missing something here?” 

“Thor and I had a feeling Bruce liked her. So we thought we'd try and set them up.” 

Tony scratched at the hairs on his goatee. “How?” 

“We got them both to Heimdall’s Halloween party so that they could hang out together, and it obviously worked,” Jane explained. 

“Right, you do realise that Natasha wound up hooking up with Steve’s soccer buddy Sam that night. And the next two nights after that. So your plan didn’t exactly work out.” 

“Ah yes, but I also gave Bruce a push in the right direction at the football game.” Tony just narrowed his eyes at him, urging him to explain further. “I suggested that he perhaps try dating one of the women in our social group.” 

“Okay, that football game was almost a month ago. They only  _ just  _ hooked up. You two are literally the worst matchmakers ever.” 

“Actually we’re two for two,” Thor stated proudly. “We successfully managed to set up my brother Loki and Janes friend Darcy. And now Bruce and Natasha. I’d say we have quite the gift for matchmaking.” Thor smiled proudly and rested his arm on the back of Jane’s chair. 

“Maybe we should try and make it three for three.” 

“Thanks but no thanks,” Tony said. “A) I do not need any help in  _ that _ department, and B) there is absolutely no way you’d see me get tied down.” 

Jane rolled her eyes. “I’m not talking about you. Maybe we should try set up Val with someone.” 

Thor stiffened and then tried to overcompensate by relaxing a little too much. He laughed nervously into his beer. “Why would we want to do that.” 

“Well if it’s Val you want to set me up with, then I’d be more than happy to go along with it.” 

“No!” Thor said. Perhaps a little too quickly. “I mean, if we’re going to set her up with someone, it probably shouldn’t be  _ Tony. _ ”

“Wow. Buddy, I gotta say I’m hurt. Not surprised. But hurt.” 

“I just, I mean we probably shouldn't exhaust our pool of friends.” If they were gonna set Val up with someone, he certainly didn’t want to see it all the time. 

It’s not that he had feelings for her or anything. No his heart well and truly belonged to Jane. It’s just that he found Val so unbelievable attractive that he went dumb around her. He couldn’t think. And he certainly couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.

But maybe it would be for the best if they set her up with someone. Then maybe he could get thoughts of her out of his head and he could be happy with Jane. Be the boyfriend that she deserved. 

“I just think it would be nice for her to have someone to spend her time with other than you, ya know.” 

“I’m sure she has plenty of other friends.” Jane looked at him a little disappointed. He sighed but finally conceded. “Fine, we can think of someone to set her up with next.” It was probably for the best. For everyone.

~*~

Bucky sat on his bed staring at the door as he waited for Steve. 

He was a little drunk and very tired but he needed to apologise. Needed to make things right between them. 

It was a little after 11:30 when Steve finally made it back to their room and Bucky shot up instantly. Steve stopped in the doorway, before finally making his way in and shrugging off his outdoor wear. 

Bucky swallowed around the lump in his throat. “I’m sorry I was such an ass. I had no right to lash out at you. You’d done nothing wrong. I was an absolute dick for no reason to you and Maria. It’s no wonder she called things off with me and I wouldn’t be surprised if you decide you can’t forgive me or-“ 

“I’m sorry to Bucky.” Steve interrupted, catching him a little off guard. “You were right, I had been a shitty friend over the last few weeks.” Bucky attempted to interrupt. “I didn’t even realise that Natasha had gone home already Buck.” Steve ran a hand through his hair and came over to sit on the edge of Bucky’s bed beside him. “It just. I really like her Bucky. She’s smart and funny and beautiful, and I really like her.” 

Bucky felt his stomach drop to the floor again, only this time it definitely wasn’t because of the alcohol. He was disappointed. Steve had feelings for Peggy and that made him feel disappointed. Hurt even. But for why? 

Bucky gave him a small teasing smile. “So d’you work up the courage to ask her out?” He asked, dreading the answer, but it was worse than he could’ve imagined. 

“Sorta. I kissed her. And she kissed me back, Buck.” Steve’s eyes gleamed with joy and Bucky felt his stomach knot up again. That was like a sucker punch straight to his abdomen. 

“I’m really happy for you, Steve,” Bucky said, trying with all that he could to sound genuine. 

“Thanks. But I promise that I’m gonna be a better friend and roommate. I can’t just not hang out with you guys and expect you to not get pissed. Or punch walls.” Steve said with a smirk as he nudged Bucky’s knee with his own. “I’m gonna go grab a shower. Wanna grab a drink tomorrow?” 

“Sure.” Bucky smiled faintly. Steve smiled back, grabbed his shower stuff and turned for the door. 

Bucky’s smile fell as soon as Steve was gone. He reached for his phone to text Natasha. She may be a few hundred miles away but he knows she’ll always be there for him whenever he needs her.  _ So I think you may have been right. I think I like Steve.  _

Her reply came almost instantly.  _ No shit dipshit.  _

_ He kissed Peggy _ . He texted back. 

_ That sucks. I’m sorry. But you’ve either got to tell him how you feel or let this thing run its course. _

Bucky couldn’t help but smile. Even over text, Natasha was the straight talker that he loved. She never held back from telling you how it was but it never felt mean or cold-hearted. And she was definitely right in this situation. 

Her follow up text came a minute or two later.  _ But whatever you decide, you need to go apologise to Maria first _ .

She was also right about that. 

Bucky grabbed his coat and made his way back out into the winter night again. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the alcohol but he could feel tears welling in his eyes. He was never one to cry over a crush, and yet right now he felt the urge to. 

He powered through and made his way to Maria’s dorm. 

She was in her pyjamas when she opened the door, leaning against the doorway looking rather unimpressed. Though after a few seconds her face softened a little. 

“I’m sorry.” Maria’s face softened completely, along with her whole demeanour. “Steve kissed Peggy.” Those words were all it took to allow the first tear to roll down his cheek. 

Eventually, he’d get over this. He’d get over Steve and Peggy, find a few people to sleep with over the Christmas break and come back, over it completely. But today he was going to let himself not be fine. 

In one day he’d realised that he had deep feelings for his roommate and that his roommate had found someone else. And he was allowed to not be okay with this for today. 


End file.
